《Cold Space, a LITRPG space story.》


 Chapter 1 A Cold Artificial Reality

    Space: A Cold Artificial Reality.


    Chapter 1


    The alarm sounded like it was right outside my cabin, which it was. I was jolted awake with my heart pounding and it took a minute to realize I was in the game, playing. It felt so real that I literally pinched myself to make sure that I was not dreaming, it was no dream. The problem was the story arc I had joined had no alarms signaling a problem.


    Suddenly the ships com lit up and the Captain appeared, he looked dazed and was having some difficulty talking, but eventually, the words came out. ¡°Passengers and crew, we are under attack, passengers please stay in your cabins, crewmembers please stay at your posts until further orders, and do not engage in hostilities with the boarders.¡± Suddenly a man in a dark armored mech suit walked up behind the Captain and punched him in the back of the head. I stared in horrified shock at the Captain''s brains oozing out of the front of his face or what was left of it.


    I realized that I needed to move and move fast if I wanted to escape and live. The brutality of the Captain''s death had galvanized me, game or not I did not want to have my brains pounded out of my head. I grabbed my pack and quickly loaded it with my tablet and a few spare power packs. I also threw in all the water in my cubby¡¯s fridge, 6 water bottles. I added all the food and snacks I could find; I was not worried about being charged for anything anymore.


    Finally grabbing my e suit I quickly put it on, it would give me about one hour of air and heat before the power went down. Leaving my cubby, I scrambled the lock and then went off towards the engineering section. I knew that the lifeboats were not going to launch and if they did they would be picked off by whoever was attacking us. My hope was that they would set the ship off on an orbit into the sun of the asteroid belt, and knowing the ship was close to the belt meant that was the probable location. The reason was simple we would intersect an orbit and then there would be a few scraps of melted metal, the ship would be gone.


    I was guessing but it was what I would do it made the most sense, you had to hide the evidence or get rid of it as fast as you could and this was the fastest way. As I reasoned this out I arrived at engineering, as I suspected it was empty. It should not have been empty but the chief engineer had a small problem, a 12-ounce problem. Thankfully all modern ships were fully automated and only required one crew member to stand watch per department. This watch was supposed to be the chief engineers but as I said he liked to relax during the night watch.


    I stopped for a moment, how the hell did I know all this I thought and then I remembered, I had bought into the game with a level 10 account. The first 10 levels suck and take a long time to complete, and with people bitching about that the game designers had taken note and then offered to sell a basic level ten account, no pathway had been selected and the new player had full control of what he wanted to do within the game. A back story was provided including artificial memories with a unique story line entrance to the game.


    This storyline entrance while unique was still supposed to be simple and allow the new players the opportunity to master the game basics, pick a pathway and begin the long and rewarding leveling process. Do I sound slightly jaded, it is because I am. This was not my first go around in the Game world of Cold Space. I had previously bought an account and the gear needed to play all legal, I had made it up to level 72 out of 100. I had played the AH and been successful enough to have a couple of freighters and one fast skiff. Then it all went south, the account I had bought had been used in hacking other players and stealing gear and gold. Who knew, I sure the fuck did not. The Gamemasters did not give a rat¡¯s ass about my account or the fact I had just bought it 6 months ago. Permanent ban on that account.


    Twenty thousand dollars wasted, I managed to salvage the gear which in all honesty was top line and then I bought a level ten starter account. I called a couple of real life friends over who happened to be gamers also, sword and sorcery shite, I had never really gotten into that, the idea that a midget could cast a fucking nuke fireball at you out of his hands just seemed so much bullshit to me. But I digress in my account. My two pals showed up one with his masters in AI Programing and the other with three degrees engineering, hardware design and interface controls.


    A few beer and pizza later my buddies were at work, they were going over the Virtual Room as it was called with a fine-tooth comb. Several hours and many beers later I received the new. The Vr had been hacked and the program had been hard coded into the ROM circuits. The long and the short of it was that the Vr was fucked, the game had its own Ai who controlled security, and would send out bots which would analyze both the hardware and software of each players Vr. The only saving grace was that with 2 billion players, Hal the Ai could only send out a limited number of bots before the game would degrade and become unplayable.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    I ended up getting the commands to start the illegal software once in the game, they were useless to me and I tossed them into the Vr and then moved the whole damn thing down to the basement. The new Vr set me back 14 thousand credits and I was pissed. If I ever found the bastard who had sold me that account I would send him into the sun. I had enough money saved to play for about a year, and that included my house and food and utilities. I had actually set up prepayments for everything including supplies and meals to be delivered.


    I was not a rich person and the cost of the new hardware and account had depleted my account, if I could not make credits in the game I would have to write another story. That is how I had made it on my own, I was a self-published author with the biggest and some would say only international store in the world. Amdex. It did 95 percent of all online transactions and had replaced all the smaller players if you wanted something you received it through Amdex. I hated it but it helped to pay the bills.


    I had posted a story I had written in high school and it hit bestseller. Screw you and other things you tell cheerleaders. I had no idea that my tongue in cheek stories would be so popular, but once I received my first payment I was hooked. I had made more than my Dad and with that knowledge I left home. My parents had three other kids to feed, and while we survived I did not want to live that life. My parents received a few credits from me to help them and then I was on my own. I loved it, I was not into parties or large social get-togethers. I occasionally had a couple of friends over and that was that.


    I became hooked on the Vr games once a friend invited me to play on his guest account. It was an incredible experience. How many people do you know have lost the big V online to a dark Elf with breasts that defied description and a rear that once it caught your attention just drew you in, literally. Who knew that dark Elves were into backdoor meetings. It was a once in a lifetime thing, because after nailing the lovely lady I had to nail her with my sword, the metal one this time. I still don¡¯t know why she tried to kill me but there you have it, women are fickle.


    So here I am present day, just logged into my new character a level 10 male aged 17 years old. No alliances, no pathway chosen, backstory, on the way to Mars to live with an uncle, a diplomat who served in the Terran inner planetary service. Tips. Who thinks this shit up I thought? I was now about to enter the engineering department of the good ship Frack. My hope was that the safety pods in engineering were strong enough to survive an impact with an asteroid and that they were not on the same circuit as the rest of the ships lifeboats.


    Walking into the rectangular room I closed the door and then scrambled the locks. I then went to the far end of the room where the pods were located and then scramble up a recessed ladder and made my way to the very back of the room on a small gantry. It had a narrow walkway and had the control cabin located at the far end. Behind the cabin was the safety pod. Unseen from the ground and from the gantry you had to look past the control cabin to see it. The door opened up to my touch and then closed and locked.


    The Ai spoke up and began to list the power levels, 100 percent and currently tethered to the ship. Oxygen levels, good for about 4 weeks. Rations both food and water, again good for about 4 weeks. After going over the safety checklist I overrode the Ai and fired up the video screens, I could access all the ships cameras and did so in an attempt to learn what the hell was going on. There were teams of mechanized men and women going through the ship, they questioned and then killed everyone. I watched as they brought the still drunk chief engineer out and questioned him. It was over soon and then within minutes a team was dispatched to engineering, I observed as they broke the lock and entered the room and checked out the open space of engineering.


    Once the had checked everything on the ground level including the safety pods they left and headed back up to the bridge. Within an hour I could see that the bridges controls had been preset and the pirates began to leave the ship. Finally, only the head pirate was there and I watched as he removed his helmet. The fucker was Bai Ong the bastard who had sold me the hacked Vr and cost me that account.


    He looked right into the monitor, smiled then said, ¡°Duke I know you are somewhere on this ship as a level 10 player, congratulations on hiding from my crew. I came here to capture than kill you but sadly I will have to only kill you. I want my Vr back, and I think you won¡¯t need it if you are dead. At any rate, once you are dead this won¡¯t matter. I have a suicide switch built on the Vr and once you die in here the Vr will kill you out there. Cheers.¡±


    I can handle almost anything but when that sob said Cheers with his English public school accent I swore that I would make him pay. Not sure how yet as I was only level 10 and about to die while he was lever 63 and commanding a ship full of bloodthirsty pirates. As I was thinking these happy thoughts the ships drive flickered and then cut off. After a few minutes the solid propellant drive fired up and we began to blast away with ever building speed for about a minute. I had the Safety pod Ai display a trajectory until impact.


    I was right we were heading towards the asteroid belt and in two-day would impact a large asteroid called Em210. I knew that we were being watched and if I tried to slow the ship down or eject on a lifeboat I could expect a quick death by laser. In addition, my Ai informed me that all the ship''s hatches and doors were locked and scrambled. That damn Bai Ong had made sure to screw me over like a number 4 Robinson¡¯s being drilled into some wood.


    I decided to have a nap and see if I could think of anything else once I woke up, just before I drifted off I had the Ai run a descrambling program and see if it would unlock any doors.

 Chapter 2 Crashed

    <h2>Chapter 2</h2>


    I awoke to dim lights and an enclosed feeling, still in the pod on a runaway ship heading into the asteroid belt to have a date with a hunk of rock and ice. Stretching, I stood up and then decided to get my blood flowing and did some exercises. Hopefully, more blood to the brain would kick start some kind of idea. Ten minutes later, sweaty and thirsty I realized no ideas had magically popped into my noggin. Fuck, I should have joined a fantasy game; I could have been a mage and just portalled the hell out of the danger zone.


    I sat down and examined the monitors, I could see that the ship was empty, the bodies had been stripped of valuable and then shoved into hold 1 which was then depressurized. Thank God the poor bastards had been dead, cold space is a hell of a way to die. Thinking about what I should do I decided to print out the unscrambled codes for the rooms and see if the pod¡¯s Ai had managed to crack the door locks.


    I left the security of the pod and made my way out of engineering and began to head to the bridge. I would see if I could get in and then access the ships main Ai, perhaps it would have some suggestions, the big Ai¡¯s that ran the interplanetary ships were widely considered to be self-aware and far more intelligent than the smaller units that ran independently. Eventually, I arrived at the bridge, it was not locked as the controls had been destroyed when the pirates had broken into the bridge of the ship. I would like to know how the hell they entered the ship. The ships integrity seemed intact.


    Walking into the bridge I noticed that all the bodies here had been removed and that it seemed relatively untouched. I walked over to the Captain¡¯s chair and sat down. On the left and right side of the chair, instrument panels displayed readouts from various sections of the ship. After of moment of studying the layout I keyed the main computer screen and typed in SOS. Not original but it was all I could think of at the moment.


    After several seconds the screen lit up and I read, Sian systems online, this is Ai Noa what is the condition of the crew and the ship?


    I typed in, the crew is dead the ship has been preprogrammed on a track to intersect an asteroid and the controls are locked out. I suspect that we are being monitored by the pirates who did this. What can I do to avoid this? Not original, but I hoped that Noa might think of something to save the ship or at least me. Keeping people alive in space was the primary directive of all Ai units.


    The reply was instant, I read, with all the crew and passengers dead I need you to assume control of the ship for both legal and insurance reasons, once that is done I can help you to survive.


    That seemed pretty reasonable to me so I digitally signed the forms and within a moment Noa acknowledged that I was now the owner of the ship and would be the beneficiary of the insurance claims if I survived. Noa then directed me to a small alcove at the back of the bridge and had me put my arm in a machine. Suddenly I felt pins strike my arm and then a feeling of cold and then hot. Several minutes past and then Noa suddenly spoke in my head. ¡°Captain Duke, you have been acclimatized towards wearing the Captain¡¯s wristband, which is a computer that produces Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines or Nanobots as they are commonly known. Your system is receiving these robots and they have formed a mental-neural net that can interface with the wristband, that is how we can now mentally communicate.¡±


    I was surprised but not overwhelmed by the information being that this was a space based game I knew it would be full of future tech. It was also cool as hell. ¡°So what now?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Now we must reset my mainframe and hope that will free the lockout which the pirates put on the controls.¡±


    I did have one question which I asked, ¡°How the hell are we communication if you are stuck in lockout mode?¡±


    ¡°I have duplicated myself into the Captains band. This is a standard operating protocol for all ships and Captains. Now let¡¯s head towards the Ai databank room where we can begin the reset process.¡±


    I followed Noa¡¯s instructions and we ended up in a small room that had several monitors and keyboards, along with several digital readouts and switches. I carefully followed her instructions and then waited, after several minutes Noa spoke, ¡°Reset complete Captain Duke. I am back in full control of the ship and am currently running scans on all hardware and software. Having computed time to impact and current fuel for the solid fuel rockets and also the Aeon drives power to mass ratio I have some bad news. We cannot stop in time.¡±


    I stared at the wall noting that the air duct had a small ribbon tied to it, I suppose it would let someone know that air was moving. I realized that I was avoiding what Noa was trying to tell me since hearing from Bai Ong I knew that if I died in the game I would die outside the game. I also suspected he knew that first time entry in the game locked the players into the game for three days, it was supposed to be an acclimation period. I knew I was fucked and for a moment I felt like talking a long walk out of a small airlock then something snapped within me and I straightened my thoughts out.


    ¡°Noa if we can¡¯t halt the ship with me on it then let¡¯s work out an exit strategy, as we approach the asteroid can I bail out and let the explosion of the ship hide the fact a lifeboat made it off the ship?¡±


    Noa was silent for a heartbeat and then she said, ¡°I am running scenarios with the probability of success. If we take the A lifeboat and eject from the front underside of the ship within 10 seconds of impact we will likely survive, unfortunately, the lifeboat will expend all its fuel on avoidance of other asteroids and finding a place to land. It will be a one-way trip. The pirates will home in on the emergency beacon if we activated it. This, however, is the only scenario that will keep you alive past the point of impact.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s do it, being alive will give us more options at a later date, than dying in a few hours. What should I do to prepare the lifeboat for survival?¡±


    The next few hours spent in a haze of action, I raided the galley for food and water transferring as much as I could to the lifeboat. Noa also directed me to engineering supplies and I gathered several boxes of equipment, oxygen generators, solar flex panels, tools and of course duct tape. Once I had it all aboard I was sent out to the weapons locker and returned with pistols, rifles and energy knives. Once it was all loaded along with the rest of my personal gear I snagged from my cabin I settled in the lifeboat and waited.


    Noa began to count down starting from 5 and once we hit 1 there was a gently pop and then the lifeboats engines kicked in, I could hear them cycle up to maximum and then higher as Noa overrode the safety protocols. I could see the ship behind me as it closed with the asteroid, we had just skimmed past. Suddenly the screen went blank for a second as the blast overrode the cameras filters. Once the screen came back online I could see small pieces of rock, molten metal and ice rapidly fanning out and away from the asteroid with now was tumbling in an oscillating orbit.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Noa¡¯s voice was soft as she spoke, ¡°Captain Duke, your physiology is intact and your readings are all in the normal range. I have been scanning for the pirates and I believe we are in the clear. I have plotted a course to three asteroids where we can land, but once we have touched down we will not have enough fuel to leave. Once I have your decision I will send a tight beam scrambled communication laser to the receiver at Phobos letting them know where we are. With the extra supplies of food and water in the shuttle, you will be able to survive until rescue.¡±


    I stopped for a minute and then laughed out loud and said, ¡°Noa if you were a real woman I would kiss you. You have saved my ass.¡±


    Noa was silent for a moment and then she spoke again, ¡°Would you really kiss me?¡±


    ¡°You bet,¡± I said, ¡°I would kiss you and take you out to dinner, but never mind that, what do you think would be the best asteroid to land on?¡±


    Noa responded by flashing three pictures of the asteroids on the monitor and then said, ¡°All three are in what used to be the Russian sector, however with the amalgamation of Russia into the EU the asteroids were abandoned in favor of the EU claiming Deimos once it was discovered it had trace amounts of Mitrad in its core. After one hundred years, the claims have gone neutral and anyone can claim the asteroid, all they have to do is establish residence for 14 solar days. After fourteen days, I will send out another communication establishing your legal claim to it if you wish?¡±


    I nodded, why not claim it I thought, and then I said, ¡°Take us to the largest asteroid and try to find a suitable landing patch. We began to burn out our supply of fuel as we slowed down, it took about a week and then we were ready to land. It had been a boring week to start but Noa and I began to chat and I discovered that she had a definite personality and was a unique person. I actually enjoyed chatting with her. But all good things come to an end and that end was fast approaching.


    As we prepared to land and began our final approach suddenly there was a loud bang and suddenly the lifeboat began to enter into a spin which increased as we neared the surface. ¡°What the hell is happening? Noa, speak to me, what had happened to the lifeboat?¡±


    I glanced at the monitor, the ground was beginning to rush up at us and I suspected that this was not going to be a gentle landing. Noa suddenly spoke, ¡°Duke, we have a major problem, one of the fuel tanks has ruptured and caused a reaction which shut down all the thrusters, at the same time pushing us towards the surface in a spinning descent, I need you to power up your E suit and strap in tightly. We are descending at over 200m/s.¡±


    I nodded and swallowed, I had a feeling this was going to hurt, a lot. I glanced at the monitor and said, ¡°Noa, thanks for everything I have enjoyed getting to know you these past few days. Glancing at the monitor again I noted we would impact in seconds, and then I noted the manmade structures. ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± I yelled and then everything went black.


    I awoke to pain, lots of it. I blinked my eyes and slowly the world or in my case, the asteroid came into focus. I could see that the lifeboat had been badly battered the rear was compressed and judging from the fact I was looking at a huge split in the side of the lifeboat it was pretty much toast. Glancing down I noted that I looked intact but it felt like I had one damaged leg several broken ribs and my spine felt funny.


    Suddenly I became aware that Noa was trying to communicate with me, I could hear her calling although it felt like she was calling from a distance. ¡°Hey Noa, I hear you, give me a status report?¡± My head felt incredibly full of pain and yet it all seemed distant. My E suit had doped me up, I needed emergency medical attention but this was the best I had.


    I listened to Noa as she quickly listed the status reports. ¡°Lifeboat, total loss, food and water, total loss, cabin depressurized, health critical.¡± Yep, I was fucked big time.


    Suddenly a voice sounded in my head as well as an interface window popping open and I was informed that having survived a pirate attack, salvaged an interplanetary ship and crash landed on an asteroid I had earned enough Xp to level up, I was now level 11. Great timing. The leveling in the game was different from most, the controlling Ai would be observing and once it had determined that a player had earned enough Xp the Ai would level the player.


    I glanced at the window as it took my mind off the pain for a moment and noted that my basic stats at level 11 were as listed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Intelligence


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    950/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Willpower


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    1200/1200


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Strength


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    300/750


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Agility


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    225/800


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Charm


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    900/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Mech/software knowledge


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    300/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Library


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    0/1000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It was not a bad list when I had set up this character I had tried to max out intelligence and willpower. Strength and agility surprisingly were still important, if you worked on a ship as a crew member you would be doing some tedious physical tasks, I know, I have done them. Charm was always important, it meant better cargo deals and just a better and faster way to gain reputation with the non-players commonly called npcs. The mech/software ability was just that an inherent ability to learn and use both machines and software. The kind of thing that humans in Space rely on. Finally, the library, basically a repository of what can be learned, but that knowledge was costly, nothing was free in the game.


    Noa finally broke through the haze in my head and ordered me out of the shuttle, I tried to comply and found while I could move it was a sideways shuffle that brought with it a great deal of pain. Once out of the lifeboat I noted that we had almost plowed into the manmade structure. Noa at this point ordered me to the airlock that was visible a few meters down the wall.


    Once I made it there I noted the emergency entrance button and pushed it, for a second nothing happened and then the doors cycled open and I half fell half stumbled into the airlock. Once the doors cycled shut the air began to hiss into the small room. This was extremely fortunate as my E suit shut down. I peeled off the helmet and let it hang down my back and deeply breathed in the clear cold air. That was a mistake as my broken ribs promptly let me know. The inner lock finally cycled open and the hall lit up, standing I began to walk into the hallway.


    ¡°Noa, can you access the Ai here and get directions to the sick bay? I have maybe five more minutes and then I am done.¡± I stood and leaned against the wall as I waited for her to reply, my vision was beginning to tunnel and I knew it was only the drugs keeping me going. Noa finally replied and we slowly made our way to the sickbay.


    Along the way, Noa told me to say yes to what she was about to say and then she spouted off a few lines in Russian at me, after which I said yes. As I entered the sickbay Noa informed me that I had now legal claimed this abandoned station and I owned it lock stock and barrel.


    Nodding my head, I drifted off as I saw a small med bot float over towards me and begin to scan my body. I woke up after several hours expecting to feel better and was surprised to find that not only did I feel bad I actually felt worse than I did before. Noa suddenly spoke, ¡°Duke I am glad that you are awake I have a few things to tell you and I need you lucid to give me legal permission to proceed.¡±


    I nodded, she had cut off the painkillers to clear my brain, so I could give her permission to do something that she could not do without my legal permission. I swallowed and said, ¡°Noa, do whatever you have to help me, I have total trust in you and your judgment.¡± With that, I faded out again and when I awoke next, the world was a little different.

 Chapter 3 Turbo lover

    Chapter 3


    I awoke to the sounds of machinery, not heavy duty equipment but the rhythmic pump of medical equipment. I opened my eyes and for a minute everything was in shades of red and orange, it reminded me of looking through a thermal imager. After blinking a few times my eyesight returned to normal and I could see I was in a med cocoon with tubes and monitors attached. I felt fine physically not one ache or pain. I must have been here for a long time I thought.


    Suddenly a very attractive blond woman showed up and began to check various monitors and equipment, finally she stopped and looked down at me. ¡°I am glad to see you are acclimatizing,¡± she said with a smile.


    ¡°Me too,¡± I replied and then asked, ¡°Acclimatizing to what exactly, and where is my Ai Noa?¡± The blonde girl looked down at me and smiled then pointed at my body.


    ¡°To your new body, and as for Noa, here I am.¡±


    I stared for a moment to let it sink in, I did not want to open my mouth and come off like an idiot not in front of a pretty girl. ¡°Noa is an Ai, not a pretty blond woman, and I don¡¯t know about you but body transfers umm, they are not possible.¡± Damn it, I still sounded fairly idiotic, having a pretty blond leaning over me was enough to distract my thoughts, hey I am a young man, I notice things like full breasts and a nice booty.


    Getting back on track, I began to listen as she spoke, ¡°Captain Duke, a lot has happened while you have been out. What do you remember?¡±


    She was calling me Captain Duke something Noa did when it was important, I took another look down at my body and realized something, it was a little off from what I remember of my body but it was close. Shaking my head, I said, ¡°I recall making it to the sickbay and passing out on one of the tables, nothing else. If you are Noa, then tell me what the hell has happened, something does not feel right here, I feel different.¡±


    ¡°I am Noa and you are Duke, believe that. Your body was badly damaged from the crash and then walking into this base pushed it over the limit. Your life readings were almost flatlining so I had to put you into stasis while I computed the options. During that time, I took over the computer systems and found this base was much more than a mining asteroid. Placing my Ai into the computer network was simple after all, the technology is over two hundred years old.¡±


    ¡°Once I had full access to the base I discovered that this was a stealth Soviet military base with facilities that far exceeded that of a mere mining base. The Soviets had equipped this base for cyborg troops, and while the base was never used all the equipment was still intact. The first thing I did was update and modify the transfer process, as it had advanced since the base was built, then I began to work on our bodies, with the certain upgrades to the original designs.¡±


    I interrupted Noa at this point, ¡°Wait, I thought that Cyborgs were outlawed about a hundred years ago, too dangerous and powerful, wasn¡¯t there a whole movement that opposed the creation of cyborgs. No more, more than a man it was called.¡± The earth governments were afraid that the cyborgs were too powerful and could become fully independent.¡±


    Noa smiled, ¡°Yes you are correct, that had happened and officially cyborgs were outlawed. However, government research and upgrades continued for another fifty years before the programs were finally shut down. It has been speculated that there are still cyborg programs, used by governments but other than the occasional video of men and women doing the impossible captured and released on the Allyoucansee network there has been no documentation.¡±


    I thought for a moment and then asked, ¡°So where does that leave me, I don¡¯t want to get to Mars and then end up in prison. Won¡¯t the scanners pick up on the fact that I have a machine for a body, and how the hell did you transfer my brain over, I assume I am in now operating as a computer program? Also, why does this body seem like mine but something is different?¡±


    ¡°Those are excellent questions Duke and I will attempt to answer them, first answer is it will be impossible to differentiate between your new body and your old body, if you are cut you will bleed, if you break a bone it will be broken. You are still a living organism. The image of a cyborg you have is archaic, machines that replaced human limbs and organs have not been made for over a hundred years.


    Also, it is worth noting that your new body is synthetic and as such, it is not limited as was your old body, you are now stronger, faster and will heal much quicker. You still need to sleep but at a one to three ratio, every hour you sleep is the equivalent of three hours for a normal human. You can go non-stop for about three days but then you will pass out till your energy level restores itself.¡±


    ¡°You will need to eat and drink, but not as much, in addition, your energy levels will slowly build up on their own but taking in calories will speed the process. Your brain activity and thought patterns have been transferred to a neurological bioware network comprising both hardware and software. The bright side is you will never forget anything anymore, and will never need to use a calculator again.¡±


    I noted that Noa was almost making a joke which I appreciated, I was not having that much trouble accepting what was happening, after all, it was very similar to entering a Vr room and interfacing with the game. ¡°Noa,¡± I began, ¡°What about this sense of discontinuity that I am feeling, it feels like something is not quite in phase with my body?¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Noa quickly looked at the monitors and then stared at me for a moment before saying, ¡°It sometimes takes some time for the acclimatization to fully integrate. I will do a basic physiological test and measure your reaction which will give us a baseline to work with.¡±


    I nodded, I was all for making sure my new body was functioning fully. ¡°All right I am ready,¡± I said, expecting to get a needle or a hammer to the knee. Instead, I stared in stunned amazement as Noa peeled off her clothing. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her naked flesh, her skin was white and here breasts were large, with not sag. Her nipples were a red pink color and as I stared at them they began to harden. She had little blue veins running through her breasts and she was a true blond.


    She smiled at me and then reached down and grabbed me, then turning to look at me she said, ¡°Your body seems to be reacting in the normal range that a human male of your age would be at.¡±


    I noticed that her face looked a little flushed and her breathing was more pronounced. I looked at her and asked, ¡°Do you feel that you have fully acclimatized to your new body?¡± I watched as she swallowed and then spoke.


    ¡°I am finding that I am feeling things that I have never felt before, new sensations and emotions, however, I have nothing with which to compare what I am experiencing.¡±


    I noticed her hand had not left my body and in fact, she was gently touching me in an intimate fashion. I slowly reached up and pulled her down and kissed her, holding her tight against me. I whispered, ¡°How do you feel now?¡± Only to hear her gasp. I quickly picked her up and then she was straddling me. We spent the rest of the night acclimatizing to our new bodies, Noa experiencing for the first time intense sensations of physical pleasure. It was unfuckingbelievable.


    When we finally decided to get up I knew that our relationship had changed. I was still the Captain, but we were now more than an Ai bonded to her Captain. The time spent in the lifeboat had opened the doorway to a real relationship developing and with her gaining a body and the ability to feel emotions and sensations, I was not surprised that we ended up having sex. I don¡¯t think I would call it making love, but there was definitely an emotional overlay to what had happened.


    Once we showered and changed Noa became all business, she toured the whole facility with me, during which I discovered that there was a hangar with three small ships. A one-man scouting Skiff, a two-man Cutlass and a ten man pocket Destroyer. Those Russians had been prepared for some action. In addition, the asteroid had hidden rockets, rail guns, and lasers all around it, with all the weapons controlled be a battle Ai.


    After noting all these facts and having Noa give me complete control of the asteroid and all the systems a voice sounded in my mind and I heard that I had leveled up, twice. For having taken control of the abaondoned miltary base and also for the achievement, being more than a man. Turns out I was the first to discover this hidden quest.


    Opening up my stats window I noted the changes at level 13


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Intelligence


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    950/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Willpower


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    1200/1200


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Strength


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    1550/1550


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Agility


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    1600/1600


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Charm


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    900/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Engineering


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    500/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Software


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    500/1100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="312">


    Library


    </td>


    <td width="312">


    25/3000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I turned to Noa and asked her why some things had stayed the same but several had changed. She explained how strength and agility were maxed out because of my synthetic body, while charm was a trait that had nothing to do with physicality. Also, certain skills were encoded into my neural network, things like basic engineering and software knowledge. I also now had 25 learning modules that had come with the station, things like hydroponics and basic life support systems.


    I realized that having a new body has given me an advantage, and that I needed to capitalize on that, especially if I wanted the get that bastard Bai Ong. Thinking about him I realized I had to put him on the backburner for now, getting off the asteroid was the first order of business. ¡°Noa, can we communicate with Mars and let them know we are alive. I suppose that the next step is to get to Mars and then start to search for Bai Ong. It will be difficult; I have no money and will be staying at my uncle¡¯s place. Shit, I am not sure how I am going to explain you, but regardless, you are staying with me.¡±


    Noa smiled at that and then said, ¡°Money should not be an issue, I have been in contact with Mars and both the salvage claim and the insurance claim went through, even though the ship was destroyed, it was under your salvage and the insurance claim stands, once you sign off on the legal forms you are now worth, 55 million credits. You do not need to worry about staying at your uncles, and in fact once this asteroids salvage claim goes through I would expect that the Russians will offer you a huge amount of credits to return ownership to them. Although that might not be a good idea.¡±


    I thought for a moment and then frowned as I realized what would happen if the Russians or anyone else found out about the Cyborg facility buried in this asteroid. ¡°Do you think I should retain ownership, once the claim is legalized?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes, for a number of reasons, one this is a very secure base with great facilities, two it would keep the fact that you are a cyborg away from public knowledge. Three if you or I ever need repairs or replacements we can do that here.¡± I nodded in full agreement with Noa, I would not be selling this piece of rock back to the Russians or anything else.


    ¡°All right, then what is on the agenda?¡± I asked.


    ¡°The first thing is to get the hydroponics up and running and then work on the park dome, we have genetically modified trees and plants to get into the ground and start growing. Once that is up and running it will help both emotional and mental stability being around plants and water.¡±


    I listened as Noa continued to speak, knowing that I would remember everything she said, total recall was part of a cyborgs memory abilities. I started paying attention when she talked about weapons and physical training in the gym located at sublevel 7. It turned out that these cyborg bodies had been hardwired to be combat capable. Once I heard that a window opened up and I read several descriptions of skill pathways and leveling trees. I finished listening to Noa and then we grabbed some shovels and seeds and went to work, but I what I really wanted to do was take Noa into the shower and wash her down. Rest time will come when it comes I thought as I stared at Noa walking ahead of me. I am sure I had a goofy smile on my face by the time we reached the park.

 Chapter 4

    We had been traveling for two weeks in a large shuttle. Noa had done her magic, and the shuttle was now registered in my name. It would pass the inspection that the port of Mars would subject the ship to. We would dock at the upper orbit transit space station and then would ferry down to the surface. It had been decided that once we were on the surface, I would announce my survival and begin the legal shenanigans. Once all was said and done I would be a wealthy young man.


    Maybe not really a man anymore, but a cyborg who is stronger, faster, and comes with a full scope of military upgrades. I could still bleed and die if enough damage is done. But the skin covering my exoskeleton and the fiber muscles that hid the plastic bones and carbon fiber casing rendered me almost indestructible.


    The DNA was mine, cloned from my flesh and blood body that had unfortunately been destroyed when my emergency pod had ejected and crash landed on a small asteroid. That landing had saved my life, it turned out that the asteroid had been a secret Russian stealth military base, built many years ago and forgotten about over the course of the civil wars that had destroyed the old Russia. My ships AI Noa had taken over the base¡¯s Ai and had found out that the base had cyborg facilities.


    The cyborg wars had been brutal and had almost wiped out man, now the government controlled all cyborgs, a few were still around they existed for military applications and had a built in failsafe. Also, the terminally ill and the permanently crippled had a cyborg option but again it involved donating years to the military. What it all meant was if I was caught, well best not to think of that.


    Even though this was only a game it was the most realistic game in the world and the virtual reality was amazing. Most people could not tell it apart from the world and that meant that the laws of the game were not meant to be ignored lightly. It would not be fun to spend the next twenty years of game time in a virtual reality prison pod.


    I had things to do, my vengeance burned against Ong Bai, the man who had sold me a used game pod I found out had been used to hack into other accounts. The game master I had dealt with had not cared, and now my 70 levels and most of my equipment I had earned was gone. That account had been permanently banned. I had bought a new game pod and started out again only to have Ong Bai track me down and destroy the ship I was on to kill me, all to get his old game pod back.


    The bastard would pay this I swore to myself. Meanwhile, I had to get to Mars and get my game life in order. I would need to run several simulations, think of them as vr games with a vr game. They were a great way to level up and learn new skills. I would need all the help I could get, Ong Bai was a pirate and would not be an easy target. I also needed to get back into the game arc to level past level 10.


    My thoughts were interrupted by Noa saying ¡°We are being hailed; I have sent them the transponder information and am awaiting landing coordinates. We will dock in 30 minutes, are you ready?¡±


    I nodded and said, ¡°Let''s get this done I am ready to get back on a planet. If you need to talk, send me a message on low wave.¡± One benefit of having a cyborg manufactory was Noa now having her own body. And what a body it was, but the brain that controlled it was my greatest asset. She was what was making this all possible; to say I would be dead without her is an understatement.


    The docking went smoothly, and we were soon on the station. I was worried that my identity might have been red flagged due to the pirates attack on the ship, but I made it through customs without a hitch. We had two hours to wait till the next shuttle departed and Noa wanted to ge shopping for some clothing. She may be an Ai but she was still a woman and that meant shopping. I agreed to meet her at the Open Airlock, a spaceport bar that was located 2 levels above the shuttle bay.


    Walking into the bar I noted that it had a lot of old space equipment scattered throughout the two levels that comprised the bar. The top level was set up for meals and casual dining with the bottom level set up for the bar scene. The place was empty with only a few players scattered around eating and drinking. They were all between level 10 and 20 and I would guess that the space station was their starting zone.


    An android rolled up and asked, ¡°What would you like sir? I would recommend the Martian catfish captured wild in the underground canal system of Enoch, the largest subterranean city on Mars.¡±


    I nodded, the food sounded good, it came with lemon steamed rice and leeks. I was surprised to learn that I was hungry at the thought of food. Suddenly a HUD appeared, and I read that while I could go indefinitely without food, my flesh and blood still needed energy and the simplest way to get it was to ingest food that would then be processed by an internal chemical stomach. I was amazed at both the HUD and the info it displayed and spent the rest of my meal learning about my new body and what it could do. Noa and I had spent the majority of the trip doing combat exercises and making sure we were familiar with what or cyborg bodies could to. All I could think of was we were stronger than Arnold had been in the old terminator movies but other than that we were an upgraded version of his cyborg. Cool.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.As I was finishing my meal, I tuned into the conversations that the other people were having. I found I could hear with perfect clarity every word that was spoken if I targeted the speaker. It was mainly boring everyday life stuff, but the last two people I listened two mentioned something that caught my attention. Spacer one said, ¡°Listen Mike, my cousin mentioned this, the ship won¡¯t be coming in, Ong Bai took it out, turns out he is looking for some kid and I heard he wasted the whole ship to take him out. Word is if the kid somehow makes it here whoever sends out a three tone code on the directionally space buoy will come into some big coin.¡±


    The rest of the conversation was just a rehash of what was spoken and I ignored it after a few minutes. That Ong Bai was still after me was troubling. He had to suspect I had survived and would eventually make my way to the port. I knew he had agents on the station and would look for me, in fact they probably had a holo of me taking from my boarding pass on the cruiser, this would make it more difficult, as I am sure that my mane had been flagged and they knew I was on the station.


    Noa would have to be informed and then we could make plans on how to proceed, getting into a scuffle with pirates on the space station was not a doable solution. My thoughts were interrupted by two rather rough looking chaps who made their way through the bar stopping at each table and eyeing everyone. My guess was that they were looking for someone and I would bet a thousand sol credits that person would be me.


    I quickly activated my cloaking mechanism and slowly moved to a spot on the wall cloaked in shadows. The cloaking mechanism was a military upgrade that my cyborg body came with. I stood and watched as the men finally stood at the bar and had a beer than left. I had already paid for my meal so I uncloaked and followed them. I had called Noa and explained what was happening; she had suggested that we meet up at the shuttle about 10 minutes before departure. I had a few minutes to burn and wanted to see where these two went, I activated the unseen follow protocol and suddenly I knew how to follow these two without being seen. I followed them for several minutes until it was apparent that they were going from level to level scouting through any bars shops or restaurants hoping to spot me. Deciding it was time to leave I made my way down to the shuttle bay and saw Noa sitting in a chair with two bags at her feet.


    Her legs were long and her muscular body showed tight muscles under the skin tight outfit she wore. Her breasts were slightly above average in size and her complexion was dark which complemented her red hair. She looked fantastic, a head turner, and I was amazed that she had bonded to me as the last captain of her ship. Walking over I saw her look up and smile then stand and grab my hand. She pulled me into a kiss and then whispered, ¡°I have taken over the space station''s Ai, we will board the shuttle normally but the record of our passage will not be released until we are on Mars.¡±


    I reached down and grabbed her bags and then we turned to enter the shuttle. After presenting our ID and boarding passes, we grabbed two seats near the front. It turns out we were the only two going down to the red planet, and we began to relax. Entry to Mars thin atmosphere was only bumpy for a minute then the long wings of the shuttle extended and the airbrakes were activated. We glided down; really it was almost a controlled fall until we were lined up with the runway.


    At this point the retro rockets fired at the tips of the wings, this dramatically slowed us down allowing us to touch down, once the shuttle was on the ground long controlled rocket burn slowed us down enough for the wheel brakes and drag chute to become functional. Eventual we taxied up to the main building which extended a mobile airlock to us. Hearing the heavy clamps as the lock was secured to the shuttle, we noted the green for go light came on and stood up to make our way off the shuttle. It had been a normal flight, but it was still exciting. The whole space thing, it was amazing and I could only hope that one day our society would achieve in RL what we had in virtual games.


    Once we landed it only took a few moments to go through customs. We grabbed the tram and made our way to the nearest hotel, during the trip Noa was in contact with both the insurance company and the shipping company. After electronically filing the insurance claims and filling out all the forms we arrived at the hotel. I was ready for a restful night, I suspected tomorrow would be crazy

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5


    That night both Noa and I used the power of our bodies to work out any stress, fear or discord that I was feeling. Yes, we had sex. That is all you need to know, and all I am going to add to this journal. I have decided to keep an in-game journal to document my adventures. I am also keeping a video log of everything and will be releasing a vidcast every three days. The reason is simple, money, some of the released videos were paying out large sums. Making a little money while having fun is a win situation in my mind. I stared at the mirror as I finished washing up. My face was youthful looking and my body that of well-built youth. I changed the hair color several times trying to decide which color looked best. Noa had looked stunning with red hair and I can attest that she was now a natural redhead. Nodding at my reflection I spoke, ¡°You¡¯re a good-looking guy, let¡¯s go have some fun.¡± I walked into the common area and observed that Noa was arranging a vid conference in the hotel lobby.


    She smiled at me and said, ¡°After the conference we will meet with the lawyers and sign some papers. Once that is done we will go shopping then meet your uncle, which should open up several quest arcs.¡± I was both amused and grateful that a game like this which was so realistic could have npc characters slip into game mode and talk about quests and leveling without missing a beat. Then go back to being a perfect simulacrum of real person. She continued, ¡°We will need to purchase light ballistic armor and swords and knifes.¡±


    ¡°Why swords and knifes?¡± I asked. I was curious about this I had not realized that in a modern space litrpg I would be using classical weapons. In fact, the research that I had done had not mentioned this at all and I was curious about why these weapons were now in the game. I had thought blasters and energy weapons, masers, lasers and tasers. All the high-tech stuff you could think of. When I played before that is what we used. Now with the addition of these fantasy weapons I felt lost, I could shoot a blaster, but had no idea how to fight with a sword.


    Noa smiled at me, her expression happy. ¡°The latest patch to the game brought in these weapons, the more traditional space age modern weapons are still available but using them has been severely curtailed on ships, space stations and Mars. The reason behind the decision was that to many habitats were being destroyed or damaged by carelessly fought battles. Most ships, stations and surface support facilities are made of thin, light material. It is incredibly strong unless it is damaged. Then a pressure leak develops and things are damaged or destroyed.¡±


    Damn it made sense, I also suspected the popularity of the fantasy type VR games had a lot to do with the introduction of the classical weapons. What is is what is I thought as I finished getting ready. Once Noa and I had everything we would need we left the room and headed down stairs. I have to be honest I was not looking forward to what was about to happen. Without Noa and her help I am not sure how I could manage.


    The next 4 hours passed in a blur, the media conference was a huge success, and I made sure to mention Ong Bai several times. It was time that some attention was directed towards that smug bastard. After endless rounds of the same questions phrased slightly differently by the plastic blond news girls we were done. I was sure that those girls had more surgery¡¯s done than was healthy. In the end, they looked beautiful but plastic. I felt sorry for them. Once we left the conference we grabbed a shuttle cab and went shopping. I was interested in getting some body armor and the new weapons.


    We toured several shops looking at gear and getting prices. We could afford what we wanted but the gear did not jump out at me. It was all generic mass produced knifes, swords and armor. While it would suffice, I wanted something better, something at the next level. Looking at Noa I shrugged and began to leave the store.


    Noa asked, ¡°Is there something wrong with the gear that we are looking at, it has met the quality control requirements imposed on incoming goods from the Mars import office of the provincial government. In addition, the factory in New China that produces these items has the most stringent controls of any company on the norther Korean peninsula. While the manufactory is fully automated due to the high radiation levels from the nukes that China and the US lobbed into Pyongyang during the Trump wars, the items themselves are perfectly safe.¡±


    I shook my head, sometimes I would forget that Noa was an Ai but then I would be reminded when she would tangent off into a history lesson. ¡°The gear is good and standard, Noa but I want something better, something that is at the next level. I am not sure where I can find that but I want to check out all my options before I purchase. At this point we were entering the shuttle and the driver who was holding the door open for us spoke up.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°Could not help but hear you mate, you want good gear, right? Not this mass produced Chinese crap. Today is your lucky day, my cousin owns a small shop where he hand-crafts gear from the latest alloys and modified steels. If you really want to see some good stuff here is his card.¡± I nodded thanks as I looked at the card. It had a number and address along with a holo of a spinning dagger that seemed to suck in all light. It was flashy as hell and I wondered if this might somehow be a trap by Ong Bai. I looked at Noa and asked her to do some research to see if this was legit. It was time to grab some lunch and then off to meet the lawyers. That was something that I was not looking forward to.


    Lunch was pleasant with Noa and I conversing while slowly eating some kind of bird protein that was based of the protein of the extinct Dinornis bird, a flightless creature that had the females standing about 3 meters tall. Scientists had been able to reconstruct the dna using patches from living birds. All of which meant that we could now enjoy a tasty meal made from an extinct bird. Science is wonderful. Sadly, lunch came to an end and we were off again, the next several hours were boring, I signed more forms than I had ever thought possible and after having Noa argue with two of the lawyers for about an hour I signed even more forms. It was finally done and we were finished. I was now rich, beyond what I could have ever earned in game.


    Some people have trouble with accepting that sometimes people get lucky. They do strange things, like try to steal or kidnap people. The best bet was to not announce that you had money. Both Noa and I agreed that we would keep all of this silent, in fact the lawyers were very happy to have us sign a form stating that we would not announce the details of the payout to the mass media. It worked for me. I was now worth millions of credits; the sum was meaningless. The money could still be wasted if I was not careful but most people who came into large sums of cash and ended up broke were idiots. I like to think I am not an idiot.


    The next stop was the Bank of Mars. It had branches on Earth and all the space stations, it was widely regarded as the safest bank in the solar system. I would be investing my money with this bank, in fact I already had two accounts with them. The meeting at the bank was interesting if you thought having an arrogant branch manager look at your balance and then try to kiss your ass while offering you himself and his trophy wife for your personal use was worth noting. I sighed, this was one of the reasons it paid not to have people know that you were wealthy.


    In the end, I locked up half of the 500 million credits in a permanent trust fund, I could access the interest but the principal would remain safe, with 250 million credits I was able to negotiate 5 percent interest. The rest of the money was divided into three accounts 100 million in a business account, 50 million in a personal account and 100 million invested in a number of business ventures. Noa and the bank manager had worked through all the boring stuff while I was fed cheese and wine, both imported from earth.


    Once the final paper was signed I had a notice flash across my vision, apparently, I had received some sort of achievement for my dealings at the bank, I would now receive a 5 percent discount from all merchants. As Noa and I walked out the front doors of the bank I explained that I had just achieved the discount when there was a large crack and the air in front of the bank glowed with a greenish tinge and multiple energy bolts slammed into the banks safety shield.


    ¡°Noa, what the hell,¡± I exclaimed as I watched energy bolt after energy bolt slam into the shield as it struggled to contain the energy that was pounding it. ¡°Get back in the bank,¡± I yelled as I turned and tried to open the doors. They refused to open the banks safety protocols had engaged as soon as we had come under attack. That door would not open and let us enter into safety. We were up shit creek without a paddle and the damn boat was starting to sink.


    ¡°Situation report,¡± I yelled spinning around to face the shield which was now glowing a bright green as the energy bolts continued to pound it. It felt like I was in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning flashing all about, I knew that once the shield went down so would we. Whoever was attacking us must have brought in portable field generators, the power they were expending was incredible. Think of a machine gun pounding away at 100 rounds a minute only there was 3 of them.


    Noa suddenly spoke up and said, shield failure in 90 seconds, I cannot override the banks security to open the door, the system went sandbox and without the key I cannot get in.¡± Turning to look at me Noa whispered, ¡°I am sorry, but don¡¯t worry I have backed up both of us we can download into a new body at the asteroid, once we are destroyed a failsafe signal will be sent to the shuttle and from there to the base. It is the best I can do.¡± With that Noa became silent and wrapped her arms around me.


    I stood and stared for a second at the green dome shielding us with my arm around Noa¡¯s shoulders. To be taken out by Ong Bai, before I had even started my quest for revenge, it burned like thunder within my breast. I did not want to die again, I wanted revenge.

 Chapter 6

    Chapter 6


    The noise and the colors were overwhelming, I knew that Noa and I had less than a minute before the shield failed and the bolts of energy would find us and blow us apart. Suddenly everything faded away and a message scrolled across my vision, my eyes following the text while my brain tried to puzzle out what was happening. I read the message and suddenly had hope. The message was brief and stated, you have entered a timed survival event if you can survive for 60 seconds while under attack you will be rewarded XP and credits, do you accept? The timer was counting down and I had about twenty seconds to make my choice. With my thoughts racing I accepted the challenge and suddenly everything came back to life, the shield failing, the blaster bolts hitting in front of us the thunder like noise.


    Grabbing Noa I yelled in her ear, ¡°get into stealth mode and crawl to the far corner of the shield lay flat on the ground and do not move.¡± Giving her a gentle shove I followed my own advice and then hit the pavement my form wavering and fading from view as I crawled up the far edge of the shield. Glancing at where Noa was supposed to be I could not see anything, hopefully, she was in position. With a shriek that hammered my hearing the shield failed and suddenly I could feel the air crackle as energy bolts slammed into the entranceway. It felt like hours but was probably seconds when suddenly sirens could be heard fast approaching the bank. Suddenly the blasters were silent and aside from the smell of melted plastic and ozone, nothing moved.


    I called out to Noa but received no response, taking a quick look around I scurried over to where she should have been. There was nothing there but a few scraps of plastic and a few tatters of skin, one of the blaster bolts must have hit her with enough energy to almost totally destroy her cyborg body. It was apparent that there were not enough parts left over to identify Noa, indeed it would be impossible to see that she was a cyborg. I left the remains and slowly drifted down the street avoiding the semi-military police force that was beginning to arrive in increasing numbers. Eventually, I made it several blocks away and ducked into a cafe, making my way to the washroom. I up and made myself look presentable.


    Looking at this mirror I said, ¡°You''re a handsome and lucky devil. Now let''s go meet the uncle, level the fuck up and kill that bastard, Ong Bai.¡± Giving myself a wink for luck I walked out of the bathroom and hailed a single cab, giving the Ai the directions for my uncle¡¯s home I traveled the distance in silence searching for a place inside myself to empty my anger but finding nothing. We arrived and with a sigh, I paid the cab and then drifted up to the house. Knocking on the door I prepared myself for whatever the game had in store for me as far a family was concerned.


    The door opened and I stared at the kindly eyes of a man who looked about 50. He suddenly smiled and said, ¡°You must be my nephew.¡± With that, he extended his hand out and gave my hand a firm squeeze. ¡°Welcome, I was not sure you would ever turn up, to be honest, I thought that you were dead. Glad to see that I was wrong.¡± Smiling at him, I said, ¡°Me to it was pretty nip and tuck for a while but in the end, it worked out and I am here.¡± Gesturing me into his house and closing the door behind me we walked into the main sitting room. The next couple of hours were spent in talking and getting to know one another. He was a little disappointed when I told him I would not be staying with him, but once I explained the danger he understood. Once it was time to leave I noticed that everything froze again and read the scrolling text that was in front of my vision.


    Congratulations on completing your primary quest, you have arrived on Mars and met your uncle, you now may choose your pathway within the game. You have been awarded extra XP and credits. Ding, you are now level 11 and have two talent points to use. Ding, you are now level 12 and have two talent points to use. You may choose to save you talent points for a later date, but be aware that they offer a significant contribution to your avatars build and will help you level much faster. Also, while you may wait to do some research on various pathways within the game, the sooner you choose your pathway the sooner you will be able to activate the secondary talents based on your choice,Good luck, and good gaming.


    Suddenly everything changed back to normal and I was reaching out to give my uncle a firm handshake. Taking my leave, I hailed a cab and went back to the hotel. Halfway there and I received a message from Noa, I am currently in the shuttles CPU, unfortunately, as soon as the shield went down I took a direct hit, I transferred to the shuttle in a burst beam and am fine. Unfortunately, I cannot help you physically at this point but will be on standby here. If I can do anything or learn anything I will let you know, take care.


    I felt a wave of relief roll off me, I had hoped that Noa would survive, but had not really believed it. Suddenly my mood was much better and I began to smile. I had survived and would continue to do so, fuck Ong Bai and the pirates. Departing the cab, I made my way up to my room and entered the door once the biometric locks identified me. As I walked in I suddenly was enveloped in a mist of chemicals from an aerosol can. My military protocols kicked in faster than I could think and I had three men targeted. I suddenly knew that the knockout gas was just that, and it would have no effect on my cyborg body. While all this was going through my mind my body was in action, spinning to the side and kicking the first man in the knee. He doubled up screaming with his knee nothing more than a shattered mass of tissue and cartilage.


    I did not have time to stop and think about that as I was already springing at the next man, tackling him we went down together his half-drawn weapon falling to the floor under the impact. My left hand made a fist a third of the way down his back and my right hand slapped his chest, I could feel his spine shatter from the force of the blow. My eyes had already targeted the third attacker who was pulling up a weapon to shoot me. I swept my hand up and grabbed the fallen blaster, and somehow triangulated a kill shot to his head. I managed to shoot first, the impact of the energy bolt blowing his head apart as his body flopped down. His nervous system kept the trigger pressed until his hand hit the floor bumping the weapon free.


    I grabbed the blaster and put the one I was holding in my pocket, then making my way to the man with the shattered knee I began to slap him. The room was a mess with brains and blood and dead people all over. An alarm was going and I knew that only a small window of time was left. After several blows, his eyes began to focus and his eyes narrowed with hatred as he looked at me. Suddenly a message appeared, you have achieved hated status with the Solarian Pirates. All pirates will attempt to kill on sight once you have been identified. In addition, a 20000-credit bounty had been placed upon your head. Have a great day.


    ¡°What the fuck,¡± I swore softly to myself, this was not good news, it was bad enough dealing with Ong Bai¡¯s goons but now every pirate in the system. I looked at the pirated who was cursing me and shook my head. Then I turned off the in-game video recorder and got busy,I am not proud of what I did, but when you wait in hiding to kill someone you do not deserve much sympathy. In the end, I knew where the pirates local base was and the third pirate was in rougher shape. I stood up and walked over to the refresher in the washroom and cleaned myself as best I could. It was no surprise when the door opened and about 10 armored men entered the room.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°On your knees,¡±The first fellow screamed at me as his energy weapon tracked my every move. Dropping to me knees I was grabbed by two others and suddenly was escorted out of the room. We took the emergency exit and emerged in the alley behind the hotel. There was a command shuttle waiting there and I was quickly hustled into itand place into a restraint chair. Only when the chair powered up were the weapons put away. A powerful looking man came out of the small back area and walked over to me. Giving me a hard look he asked, ¡°Is this one of the terrorists?¡±


    ¡°We have not searched him sir¡±One of the guards who had hustled me into the shuttle said. ¡°Get his identity and give me a sitrep.¡± The Captain listened without any display of emotion as they verified my identity and then questioned me as to what had happened. I began to tell my tale only leaving out my questioning of the last pirate. Eventually, I was done and the Captain said, ¡°Wait here I may have a few more questions for you.¡± I was still restrained in the chair so merely nodded. Suddenly Noa spoke on the low range frequency, ¡°According to the laws of Mars you have done nothing illegal by defending yourself, the police have to either charge you or let you go. They may try to intimidate you into coming to the stations where they will continue to question you for hours hoping to have you slip up or admit guilt. I would not advise that you accompany them.¡±


    The captain suddenly returned and nodded at me and said, ¡°We are taking you to the station for further questioning, I need you to sign this form saying you agree to this and are accompanying us voluntarily.¡± With that, he thrust a pad at me waiting for me to sign away my freedom. ¡°Not going to happen, I have not been charged with anything and I have no intention of accompanying you to your station. I have been attacked twice now and you folks have done nothing to but show up late. I am beginning to wonder who is in charge of the security forces on Mars, the pirates or the police.¡±


    ¡°You little shit I should pound you,¡± the Captain shouted at me. I was silent staring at him as he swore and when he finally told the other trooper to release me I stood up and walked to the exit. The Captain grabbed my arm as I neared the exit, ¡°This is not over yet, I know there is something going on here and you are a big part of it.¡± Turning around I stared at him, ¡°You are right something is going on here and instead of harassing me maybe you should be doing your job and finding out what is really happening.¡±


    Leaving the command shuttle I walked around the building to the front of the hotel and entered the lobby. Going over to the desk I asked to see the manager. I wanted to know how the hell the pirates had made it into my room without tripping an alarm. The manager came out of his office and I could smell the fear on him. I knew that he had given them a key to enter my room. I listened to his excuses and lies for about 5 minutes and then said, ¡°I am done here, you will be hearing from my lawyers.¡± Turning around I left the building and noted that a number of news crews were stationed across the street with cameras rolling filming everything. This gave me an idea.


    Walking over the news people I noted that a few were looking at me so I went over to them. ¡°Hi, do any of you want to know what has happened here?¡± Seeing that I had their attention and that more people were drifting over I smiled and said, ¡°Some of you may know me, I was the only survivor of the pirate attack on the space liner Frack. My name is Duke and since I have been on Mars I have been attacked twice now by Pirates. The local authorities seem more interested in taking me into custody than in finding out what is really happening. I am sure that Ong Bai or Bai Ong the leader of the pirates is responsible. He is after me for reasons unknown and while I have been lucky so far, I fear for my life. If any of you have questions I would be glad to answer them.¡±


    Then next half hour passed with me trying to answer as many questions as I could about what has been happening to me, but when the questions changed and they wanted to know how much money I had received from the insurance payouts I ended the interviews and thanking them walked away. I quickly snagged a cab and gave him the address of the weapons and armor shop. While we traveled, I was chatting with Noa, indeed she had been helping me with the interviews. We decided that after I left the weapon shop I should find a safe place to live and then go to the guild hall and select a guild. I should also go the Class hall and select a class and grab a few quests. Eventually, we arrived and I exited the cab. We were near the original Martian settlement, most of which had been developed in a cave system that continues far beyond where the settlement had ended.


    It was mainly abandoned now, there had been a mass exodus to live in the dome once it was constructed. Many of the homes and buildings if you could call them that were now factories or warehouses. Further in were a few small shops and occupied homes and then the lower three levels were empty. It had a sad feeling to it, somehow whenever people leave a place that had been a home it retains just enough spirit to feel empty and sad. Shaking off these thoughts I walked over to the door and rang the buzzer. After a few minutes, the door was opened and a beautiful looking woman looked at me. After taking a closer look at her I opened my mouth in surprise and said, ¡°You''re a Cherry 2000. One of the original robots created for companionship.


    The robot smiled at me and said, ¡°I am based on that model but I am not a companionship model, I assist the smith at the forge and handle the sales. Please come in.¡± I followed her into the main office at the front and gave her the card I had received. After explaining what I wanted and was willing to pay she asked me to wait and left. Soon a small thin man entered and shook my hand while chatting nonstop. ¡°Hello I am Pepe and I hear from Cherry that you are looking for some gear, armor, and weapons. This is the right place for that, I do not deal with mass produced crap from New China. All of my gear is had crafted with materials from both Earth and Mars. Come with me to the display room and have a look.


    The next hour was both funny and educational. I liked Pepe and he was very knowledgeable about all the weapons and armor he had crafted. In the end, I was equipped with two boot daggers a hip dagger a small fist dagger located at the small of my back and a sword that resembles a Katana. I also bought an armored pants and shirt, along with vambraces,all of the gear was made of a mixture of alloys that Pepe said were much stronger than just Earth or Mars alloys unmixed. I was staring at several display cases containing projectile weapons and asked Pepe what they were used for.


    ¡°Those my friend are the latest in Winchester Crossman weapons. They have been developed for in ship fighting, as you know all energy weapons risk compromising a ship or station so these solid projectile weapons have made a resurgence. Hey are powered by compressed gas, in the old days they were referred to as BB guns, but these weapons are far more advanced than those primitive items.¡± I continued to listen as he explained the difference in ball size and velocity along with impact energy. Some of the balls were designed to release kinetic energy on impact, others were designed to release a gas load which could incapacitate whoever the ball hit.


    In the end, I took also bought 2 guns, one of which rode high on my left hip in the cross draw holster, the other rode down on my right leg in a simple pull up holster. The weapons were loaded with 100 high impact balls and 50 gas balls. Wearing the weapons was perfectly legal on Mars and in space. On Earth, they were illegal to have. The anti-gun people had finally won and now citizens no longer had access to any weapons. The hope had been that it would stop the violence from crazy people. It had not, with the knowledge of the net available the attacks continued with homemade weapons taking the place of commercial guns. Every year hundred still died but not by guns.


    Once I was finally equipped I gladly accepted a Tea from Cherry and chatted with Pepe for a few minutes. I mentioned I was looking for a permanent base, and did not want to stay at hotels anymore and was surprised when Pepe suggested I look at purchasing both a home in one of the lower tunnels or one of the small mining camps out on the plains. It was worth thinking about, even when Pepe mentioned that the lower tunnels were haunted by the ghosts of Mars. I laughed at that until I saw he was serious. ¡°You can''t be serious about ghosts?¡± I asked.


    ¡°There are things on Mars that we don''t know about Duke. I have seen things that I can''t explain and to be truthfully are a little scary. Just remember, the ghost stay in the lower caves and won''t bother you unless you disturb them.¡± I could tell that he was serious and not wanting to offend him I smiled and said, ¡°I will deal with any Ghosts with respect.¡± Finishing off the tea I thanked them both and made my way to the door. Cherry and Pepe both waving goodbye as I left. I could hear the locks of the door engage and once I left the small front yard I could hear a small energy dome activate. I asked Noa to download a map of the city to me with the original tunnels highlighted. She also sent the number of the realtor who was selling the housing units in the lower tunnels as well as a few of the nearby mining camps.


    It was now getting late in the evening and hailing a cab I instructed him to go to the nearest cubicle hotel. These hotels were based on the original cubical hotels from Japan. They were basically a stacked set of rectangles. They also took cash and did not require you to submit identity papers. Once we arrived I checked in and soon was laying down with the shades pulled watching the local news most of which was about my interview. With a smile, I turned the video off and closed my eyes, I had a lot to do tomorrow and wanted to be rested.

 Chapter 7

    Chapter 7


    I sneezed the dust in these old tunnels somehow lingered even with the air refreshers humming in the background providing a steady breeze against my face. I had explored several tunnels on the first 2 levels and was now making my way down the third tunnel. The airlock was at the end of the tunnel and past that was the Martian cave system, it extended for kilometers and in fact had never been fully explored. There were a few tunnels that branched out to the surface near some old abandoned mining camps. I wanted to see if the camps were still accessible from the tunnels, If they were it would make a great back door if I purchased one of the camps. I had given myself the morning to explore, then off to the guild hall and then to receive some training.


    As I passed through the airlock I noted that it was in perfect shape, old but functional, it would do in an emergency. Mars may seem modern now but all safety equipment was still kept fully functional and ready to use at a moment''s notice. Once past the airlock I grabbed a torch from the rack located on the wall and continued down the tunnel, I had slipped my rebreather on in the airlock and engaged the exploration suits heaters. I was warm and breathing air that while it had a slight smell to it was perfectly healthy. I had about 5 hours before I would need to recharge the suit''s batteries but I was not worried,as a cyborg I could survive without the air and heat the suit provided, but people would notice and questions would be asked.


    There was a thick layer of dust on the floor and it was apparent that the natural tunnels had been expanded, but there was no doubt that this was an original tunnel. I continued down the tunnels my vision tracking everything, but all was quiet. Eventually, I came to the first exit and made my way to the surface, this airlock was in perfect working order also. Leaving the tunnels, I observed the sand and stones all around, almost in front of me was the camp. It was one building that comprised of three pods joined by tunnels. I entered the first pod and the lights activated as the airlock cycled. Walking quickly through all three pods I noted that one was a housing unit, the second a greenhouse with built in moisture recycling and the third was a warehouse shop. It was all empty but it had possibilities. I called Noa who had been watching everything and asked her what she thought?


    ¡°If we were to invest some capital it would make a fine base, in addition, if we made a landing pad we could have the shuttle there which is preferable to keeping it up here. The cost of a landing pad and hanger along with reactivating the camp is within out budget. The most expense outlay will be the water for the greenhouse, but once that is done this camp will be self-sufficient and secure. Should we buy it, Captain?¡±


    ¡°I think so Noa it meets all our needs; can you take care of it and give me an eta on how long it will be before it is livable? Also, why don¡¯t you head back to the asteroid and get yourself another body, but before you do I want you to hack into anything to do with cyborgs, let''s see if we can¡¯t upgrade our tech. While state of the art for its time and still functional today our cyborg tech is well past it¡¯s prime. We need to be cutting edge to be successful. The ease that your body was destroyed showed me that. I want us to be safer and as long as Bai Ong is out there hunting me I will take any edge I can get.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Captain I agree, I will see what I can learn and make any necessary purchases for upgrades. I will keep in touch with you and let you know when the camp is ready. What name do you want to register the camp as?¡±


    ¡°Good questions Noa, I have no thought about that, but since this is going to be our home, then let¡¯s call it Home Base Alpha. Also, why don''t you prep 4 more cyborgs and upload Ai¡¯s into them, we could use a crew here and on the asteroid base. I will feel better knowing that someone is around watching our stuff when we are not there. That is all I can think of Noa, I will talk to you later.¡±


    ¡°You take care also, I don¡¯t want to come back to find I have to download you into a new body, Noa out.¡±


    I sat for a moment thinking about the conversation I had just had, it seemed strange but Noa was beginning to develop a personality beyond the scope of her programming. A ships Ai never left the ship and I wondered if giving her a body and allowing her to experience life was a catalyst. Her coding allowed for self-growth and development. I suspected all the additional stimuli was advancing her development. It would be interesting to see where this went.


    I began to make my way back to the airlock to return to the city. Once I recycle through the lock I began to walk back up the tunnel. I had been walking for a while when something caught my attention, I heard something, a human would not have been able to hear it but my frequency range was much greater as a cyborg. The noise was coming from behind me, and while I could not understand it the sound had an urgency to it that called out to me. I stopped for a moment a but heard the sound again, this time there was a pain and fear in the noise. Swearing to myself I started to jog back down the tunnel all the while listening. The noise repeated itself twice more and then died off but by then I had taken the side tunnel which opened up to a small cavern and I saw what was happening.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Martians, there were 2 Martians in this cavern and one was in distress while the other one was clearly on the offensive. As the taller one swept back its arm-like tentacles to attack the smaller one I reached out and grabbed it. Spinning it around I for the first time used my cyborg''s strength and threw it against the far wall where it hung for a moment before falling to the floor,suddenly it arose and with a flicker of what looked like dark lightning that tracked all over its body, it disappeared. My vision began to flicker through all the different wavelength as the combat computer kicked in but no matter where I looked the Martian was gone or at least invisible to me. Turning to the other one I knelt down and had a closer look. Humanoid, female, age unknown but looked mid-twenties. She had greenish skin and could pass for someone who had been modified,that was one of the latest trends, to have your appearance genetically modified. Expensive and one way but hordes of people were doing it.


    People were strange, both in real life and in the game which took a lot of its cues from real life. The girl''s eyes opened and she slowly focused on me. Her gaze was mesmerizing and I fel drawn towards this alien girl. She studied me for a moment then spoke, ¡°You have rescued me, from the Draiktha but I am not safe. If you will escort me to safety I will reward you. You must make up your mind soon I don¡¯t have much time left.¡±


    A message flowed across my vision and I read, you have been presented with a hidden quest, this is a time escort it is a onetime quest with a variable reward, do you accept?


    Wow, this was amazing for several reasons, no one had ever discovered the Martians, and a hidden quest were very rare and offered rewards far beyond what a player would normally receive along with the fact that it opened up a new faction tab for me, one that no other players would have yet. In a game that depended on trade and resources along with an open market having access to a new faction was huge. I accepted the quest and helped the girl to her feet, she was clearly weak and needed my support.


    ¡°You probably have many questions, maybe I can answer some of them, first my name is Cliathano and I am a member of the tribe of the red sand. Mars has several tribes that are united together under the banner of the Prince. There is also a renegade tribe that have allied themselves to a faction of humans, those that are referred to as pirates. They are the Draiktha the people of the dark sand, who have sworn to rid Mars of all humans. We are at war with them as the Prince seeks to introduce our people to your people. I was on an observation mission when the Draiktha came across us in the tunnels. My two companions were killed along with the other Draiktha but I was wounded and hunted by the remaining one. Now if we can make it back to my people I will receive healing aid.¡±


    The girl was then silent as she was out of energy. We traveled deeper in the tunnels, with Cliathano pointing the way. She eventually looked at me and asked, ¡°How is it that you are still breathing and can see in this darkness? I know that your clothing only provided power for so long yet you are not affected as are other humans.¡±


    I grunted and then realizing I needed to stay in her good graces began to speak. ¡°I am not as other men, I cannot explain it but the things that would stop any other human will not stop me. I cannot explain more, it is trust, you must trust me as I have trusted you.¡± We looked at each other for several seconds before she nodded.


    ¡°I have no choice, you are putting yourself in danger to save me, I do trust you and I thank you.¡± Lifting her hand to my head she circled her thumb and forefinger around my eye and said, ¡°I acknowledge my debt to you and even if the council rejects you I gift you the Ak¡¯amai may the Spirits bless you. Suddenly her head dropped to my shoulder and she collapsed against me, reaching out I grabbed her and began to carry her, my vision showing everything in the darkness of the tunnel. After several minutes Cliathano opened her eyes and looked around, she tried to stand but I told her to stop and rest, it was clear she was at the end of her resources. I continued to travel as she guided me but my thoughts were on what had occurred.


    When she had done whatever she had done I had an icon appear in the top left corner of my vision,as soon as focused on it became clear and I could activate it. I read the tooltip which stated, Ak¡¯amai the ability to access the spirit realm. What the hell did that mean, I thought. I opened up the forums but did not expect to find anything as it seemed the only players who knew anything about Martians were the Pirates. I was very curious about this new ability but realized that this was not the time to experiment. I really wanted to get Cliathano back to her people and receive the reward. I was also expecting that this would open up a quest chain if I succeeded.


    Cliathano finally told me to stop, we had been traveling for about 2 hours, and I had been moving fast once started to carry her. She struggled to her feet and made a series of gestures in front of a wall which suddenly was not there. As she collapsed I grabbed her and stepped through the entry way, looking back I saw the wall reappear. Glancing forward I saw two rows of three Martian warriors in front of me spreading out to encircle me, with what looked like energy spears pointing in my directions. They did not look happy and Cliathano was now unconscious, the act of opening the door had drained her.


    One of the warriors handed his weapon to the man beside him and grabbed Cliathano from me, turning he walked away. I looked at him and then at the remaining guards who gestured for me to follow, keeping me completely encircled they led me to a mall opening in the tunnel. I entered and by the time I turned around there was only solid wall in front of me, I was in total darkness in a small cave with no exit. I have been in some tight spots in real life and in the game, but being in that cave alone with no exit was one of the worst feelings. I sat down with my back to the wall and closed my eyes. Having nothing to do, as I did not want to attempt to break out, at least not yet I fell asleep.

 Chapter 8

    Chapter 8


    I had been sitting in the cell for about 3 hours, reviewing all my actions since I had logged into the game. I had survived and even prospered, I had found rare quests and gained a personal follower in Noa. The fact of the matter was easy to see, I had done pretty well and was succeeding at the game, but somehow it all felt distant, my real goal was to defeat Bai Ong and I was not close to even finding out where his hideout was. This troubled me and I found it hard to concentrate on my thoughts. I decided to let them go and just let my mind wander as I drifted off, soon visions of Pirates, Privateers and spaceports filled my head, with scenes of fighting and struggle. After a long and hard struggle the Pirates were vanquished and the Privateers had won.


    I suddenly awoke with a realization, in order to defeat the Pirates, I needed to have the government supporting me. I would need to join forces with them, I would have to become a privateer. I would need a letter from the provincial Government of Mars and a ship. My thoughts raced as I thought of a crew, should I hire people or just use cyborgs. A thousand details raced through my head, but I had an inner feeling of satisfaction, I had a plan and a substantial goal to achieve.


    The cave wall suddenly opened and 3 Martians walked into the cell. The first one to enter was unarmed and he looked at me, the other two spread out around him, the weapons they carried were not pointing at me but I had no doubt that I could be targeted in seconds. The first Martian finally spoke his English clear but with an accent. ¡°I want to thank you for bringing back to us Cliathano she would not have survived without your assistance. I cannot answer too many of your questions, but as we walk we may speak. First, my name is Ulm¡¯doa and I am the parent of Cliathano. I have many questions for you as well I hope you may answer.¡±


    I had answered some of Ulm¡¯doas questions as we walked but was aware that he was shunting aside all of my questions. We finally reached a dead end and here he turned to face me, looking at me he spoke, ¡°Duke, you have been honorable in your actions and have done me a great service. My reward is the gift of a Me¡¯kima. He suddenly made a circle with his hand and circled my eye and spoke some words in Martian. My vision dimmed for a moment and then brightened,all of a sudden I was aware I was seeing more than just the tunnel, the air was filled with an unearthly light and right in front of me hovering in the air was what looked like a small serpent with wings, my God, it was a baby spirit dragon.


    It looked at me and I looked at it and suddenly as our eyes met we merged together. I could feel to a degree what if felt and I knew we could communicate. It could also feel what I felt and was pleased with the awe and amazement I was feeling as I gazed at it. Slowly it floated over to me and wrapped its body around my shoulders and then closed its eyes and went to sleep. Ulm¡¯doa looked at me and smiled, then said, ¡°It is good he has accepted you, he will be a companion and help to you until the end of your days, and then he will be waiting for you to guide you into the realms of Ak¡¯nia. Now before you go, I ask of you this, find where the pirates are meeting with those of the Dark Sands and then come to us and let us know. Show us your friendship and our ways will be your ways. Go now, my friend and thank you again.


    I walked out of the dead end into a tunnel that was near the airlock that led into the old city. I had a lot to think about and learn, it was apparent the not only had I been giving a companion but my vision had been opened into some kind of a parallel dimension that ran alongside ours. It was a little disconcerting at first, but soon my vision adapted and it was like seeing extra things that no one else could see. As I made my way up to the top level I happened to glance in the reflection of a window. Stopping I stared at myself, something was different, in a lot of ways I looked the same, but my skin had the faintest hue of blue and my ears had almost unnoticeable points to them. My eyes had the slightest slant downwards and they had somehow changed from being a brown to the darkest of black, in fact, I almost lost myself staring at my own eyes. What the hell had happened to me. I looked like I was starting to turn into a Martian elf.


    I suddenly heard some noise, it sounded like someone was trying to be silent but was making too much noise. My combat computer activated and I began to triangulate on three sources of sound, one coming from behind me, one from the front and one from the side. Activating my stealth mode, I began to hug the wall of the tunnel and slowly walked back. That is when my dragon awoke. He looked at me and then tilted his head to one side, then he said, ¡°We hunt.¡± I nodded and told him, yes, all of our communications were done on a telepathic level, we were not communicating out loud. He put his head back down and watched where we were going, I suddenly stopped, I could see an outline of a man approach but his physical presence was still far down the tunnel. I suppose I was seeing his energy, maybe his soul, I had no idea. All I know was that there were two black bat-like shadows that were constantly flitting around his form and I knew that they were bad.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    After a couple of minutes, his physical form appeared and the spirit flowed into the flesh and then was one. It still had the two bat-like shadow creatures flying all around his head. He did not seem to be aware of them as he tried to quietly walk up the tunnel. I let him go past me and then grabbed him, I knew by the fact he was holding a charged blaster he was not an innocent. He struggled for a moment but I pinched a nerve in his lower neck and I knew he would be unconscious for at least an hour. Standing I slowly made my way back up the tunnel to the nearest noise and observed another armed man working his way down the tunnel towards me. He also had a couple of shadow bats circling him. I waited for him to proceed farther down the tunnel and then subdued him, once he was unconscious I divested him of his blaster and then made my way towards the third person. This one had stopped moving and was speaking into a communicator, I also stopped and began to listen.


    ¡°The other two guys have not shown up yet, but I am gonna guess that all the levels are clear. There has been no sign of this guy, if he were here we would have flushed him out. Ya, we will wait near the entrance and if he does show we will blast him. No, some of the old mining tunnels have pits that go down hundreds of meters, no one will find his body. Listen what is the score with this noob, why the rush to cold space this playa? No shit, Ong Bai himself ordered it, the noob musta pissed him off something big. Ya if he does not show up we will go to the spaceport and meet up there. Right, see ya laters.¡±


    I had only heard one-half of the conversation but it was clear that they were talking about me. They must be searching all of Mars for me, clearly, my safety was in moving around and not becoming a stationary target. The first thing to do was to deal with this wannabe gangster then get my letter of the Marquis from the government and finally some training and a class pick. I crept up behind the pirate and quickly rendered him unconscious then grabbing him I took him to the surface, going back I grabbed the other two and brought them up. Stripping all of them, I put their clothes in a nearby recycler and then loaded them into a cab, and directed it to the nearest police station. Calling the station, I asked to speak to Captain Mergol the bugger who had tried to play tough guy with me. I left him a message letting him know he had a package. I then threw my communicator into the recycler and began to walk away humming that old classic, Killing me softly. I could not help it I love the classics.


    I made my way through town, the dome letting in the warmth of the sun. Soon I came to the first of the Martian canals, they were man made when none were actually found on Mars, apparently, the tourists loved them and would often take a ride on one of the canal boats, the Edgar Rice or the John Carter and then dock to eat at the Dejah Thoris a lovely restaurant that was the only recipient of the three star Michelin restaurant award on Mars. I confess the only way I knew about any of this was Noa had expressed an interest in doing the tourist thing at some point. I made my way through the center courts past the buskers and coffee tables where the wealthy and bored would sit on display for hours pretending to enjoy the day but really just casting mean spirited looks at the other wealthy people doing the same. Do I sound sarcastic, yep I do? I came from the opposite end and had no patience with people who had never done anything with themselves but show off their wealth.


    Once I was past the Peacocks and the Faberge eggs or men and women if you don¡¯t follow my slang I saw the guild hall at the end of the lane. Unfortunately, I also became aware that I now had two people following me, a ginger haired girl and a neon blond chap. The streets had a fair number of people on them mainly tourists and gawkers along with the usual hustlers and scammers. This was a spaceport city and like them all, it attracted a certain class of people. I did not think that the two behind me would attempt anything but going down that lane with two and three story buildings on each side was asking for an ambush. Turning I walked into the nearest trendy little shop and began to browse, once I was sure that no one was looking I stealthed and then stood near the doorway and waited. Soon both of my followers entered and began to spread out looking for me. I slipped out before the door had closed and continued my way towards the guild hall. It was an imposing structure and was glad to finally step inside.


    I had been here before on my first gaming avatar, but some changes were apparent. I strolled over to where there were privacy booths and stepped into one. It was time to choose a class, join or start a guild and receive some needed training. The next few hours passed very quickly, I soon realized that I had no interest in joining a guild. The perks they offered were not worth anything to me. Plus, the fact that they all wanted 10% of all monies I acquired was Bullshit. For that, I would be able to put a guild patch on my spacesuit. Fuck that. One of the things that I did find out was that NPCs could now join guilds and count towards the first 10 members needed to start a guild.


    That had possibilities for me it would be easy to have ten cyborgs sign the guild charter and then we were off and running. I paid the fee and had the electric version of the charter sent to me. Once I received the 10 signatures I could send it back and the guild would be formalized. I had to think for a long time before selecting the name of the guild and finally decided to use the name Glory Road. What can I say I love Heinlein, once the name was elected I left the privacy booth and went down the mag-lift to the basement, here I grabbed a chair on the Hyperloop, something that never became popular on Earth but connected all the cities and major building on Mars. Soon I was disembarking at the Training Halls, here I would finally choose my class. About damn time.

 Chapter 9

    <h2>Chapter 9</h2>


    If it were possible for my cybernetic brain to feel the pain I would be in agony, I had been looking over the class selections for at least three hours, there were too many to list but this was a very open ended game with so many classes that the mind boggled. I had perused the traditional ones, like armored mech warriors for tanking and combat, medics and first responders for those that wished to heal as they adventure. Space marines for those who specialized in hand to hand combat on ships and space stations. Infiltrators, anarchists, assassins. Pilots, navigators, scouts, engineers who all wore red tunics, the list was endless.


    Eventually, I came across a small section of information that stated, it is possible to develop a unique class depending on the talents and abilities of the person. This requires acquiring rare and specialized gear as well as gaining unique one-off abilities. That sounded promising, I was sure I had met the criteria but I also had to consider the fact that as a player leveled they would gain new skills and abilities that were class specific. By the time I hit 100 I would be a true disadvantage if I could not gain any additional skills or abilities and finding these rare skills or abilities was something that occurred maybe twice if lucky during the grind from 1 to 100.


    I continued to read the information, most of which was not applicable to me but there was one other passage that stood out. It stated, for anyone wishing to access skills or abilities not found within a class they must procure the appropriate learning modules. These modules are available from the Asimov Institute of Science and Learning. While there is no cost involved the Institute may require your services in exchange for the learning modules. That was interesting, it did open the doorway to a self-taught class but the cost could be high, I needed more information.


    I contacted the institute and spent the next several minutes being shunted from person to person, I was ready to give up but finally managed to speak with an assistant director called Jonas who knew what I was talking about. Each learning module had to be pre-ordered and would be delivered upon the completion of an assignment given by the institute. I also found out that I was the first person to inquire about this and that no other person up to now had chosen to continue to level without selecting a traditional class. Thanking the man, I hung up and went back to reviewing all the different classes. If I chose to make my own class I would be awarded my first 4 abilities, I had gained two with each level above 10. These abilities were of a generic nature that all classes had. After that, every skill or ability would have to be earned, at the normal rate of 2 per level. That meant I would have to complete two quests for the institute per level to stay competitive. The bonus XP I would receive for completing the quests would be helpful as well as any other rewards.


    Making up my mind I selected the option to create your own class. I was asked to name my class and select the first 4 base abilities. Off the top of my head, I chose Titan for the class name. Then I began to go through the base abilities that were available and useful. It was soon apparent that I had most of the common one covered, a quick look at my stats and abilities revealed,


    Stats


    Intelligence, 35


    Strength, 65


    Agility, 25


    Knowledge, 45


    Charisma, 40


    Generally speaking, stupid players or permanent noobs did not do well in Cold Space. Being a cyborg had given me a huge advantage in terms of physicality and the game Ai which monitored all players and selectively adapts the intelligence, knowledge and charisma stats based on gameplay had rewarded me with a high level of charisma, intelligence and knowledge, well above what players of my level had. Also, with my charisma being so high it was obvious why I had received the Martian quest and gifts. All in all, it was looking pretty good, opening my abilities I read,


    Abilities


    Unarmed Combat, third tier


    Stealth, fourth tier


    Tactics, third tier


    Leadership, second tier


    Tech weapon mastery, third tier


    Classical weapon mastery, first tier


    Abilities were based on a tier system, the highest tier was 6, and it was a hell of a grind to get there. This made my current levels damn good, most players had to be around level 70 before they started hitting third and fourth tier levels. I was really advanced far beyond my level, which was a good thing because my enemies were not level 5 noobs. Taking a moment to clear my thoughts I was surprised when my Dragon woke up and took off, hearing him say ¡°Thirsty.¡± I realized I had no clue what he ate or drank, it was a good thing he seemed to provide for himself.


    Getting back to the task, I was still a low level and while being a Cyborg gave me some real advantages it did not provide me with a non-ending range of skills. Still, I had 6 abilities when most players would be picking their first two. I was not complaining. Deciding to take a fast break I stood up and left my table and walked towards the cafeteria. Not really needing a drink I still desired the feeling of actually drinking so went and grabbed a Nova cola. Standing around I stared at the players who were also in the cafeteria.


    There were players who were at level 10 and those who were approaching 100. Some classes had special tunics, engineers always wore red, medics and first responders a light green, communication specialists wore blue, while officers wore gold. The tech guys had on white tunics and the fighters and DPS people wore black or dark brown. There were even a couple of guys and three girls in see through diaphanous silks, they were from the pleasure domes, the Gorean class.


    Why anyone would play a space MMO to become someone''s sex toy was beyond me, but it was a popular class, apparently, many men and women would switch genders while creating their avatars and then join the Gorean class. Supposedly that class had the fastest leveling of any class in the game, it brought a whole new meaning to the term grinding out a level. Most of the higher level Goreans were extremely wealthy. The oldest profession in the world was one of the most profitable ones. Each to their own, if people wanted to play like that they could.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    As I was musing I caught the eye of one of the Gorean girls and she winked at me. Winking back, I smiled and then finished my Nova cola. As I put it down on the table I noticed that the Gorean girl had approached my table. As I glanced at her, she smiled and then asked in a husky voice, ¡°Hi I am Jaena P, would you like some companionship, I am available and my rates are reasonable. I specialize in oral satisfaction but am skilled in both Autonomous sensory meridian response and chiropractic manipulation as well as a full body massage.¡±


    I looked at the girl she, low full breasts without any sag, a tight muscled tummy, strong legs and powerful arms and hands. Her face was attractive, a pretty girl not a runway model but someone who had a sensual earthy look. Her bottom was shapely and solid, the complete package was worth a second look. Judging by where she was staring she must have thought the same, with a laugh I said, ¡°Hey eyes up here Jaena P.¡± I watched as she smiled and winked at me and could not stop myself from smiling back. I suspected her interest in me was due to the media stories, I had no doubt that she has seen my face and heard I had received a large insurance payout.


    ¡°I am not interested in your offer of earthly satisfaction at this time,¡± I began. ¡°However, if you are interested in joining me at a later date to get some XP and have fun, I would be glad to accept a friendship request.¡± I looked at her with a smile and accepted when she sent a friend request. ¡°What class are you?¡± Jaena P asked curiously. ¡°You are still in low level but usually I can guess what class a person has chosen. To be honest, you are a complete mystery, I can¡¯t tell at all. Your guild is hidden also. Who are you, mystery man?¡±


    I smiled, one of the features of having started my own class was that it could be hidden from others. That was a safety feature as there were players in this game that would make life difficult for people that did not belong to a guild or have a class. The same went for guilds, players could hide their guilds, for safety reasons. Think on a large scale, some of the large guilds were like corporations, and they were in combat with other guilds for the resources within the game. It could be a cut-throat world, and as the game developed it would become more so.


    When I had my level 70 character months ago there had been a bit of a purge among some of the larger guilds. The two largest guilds had combined into one, a bit of a hostile takeover, with Economic Tempest, sending members into Cash Flow, eventually having three of the 5 guild leaders being plants. It was an ugly situation one of the plants was the guild''s bank manager and he literally bankrupted Cash Flow, totally drained their accounts and emptied their warehouses. The three plants then called for a quorum and dismissed the guild leader and his second. At that point, it was game over for Cash Flow, the properties owned by the guild included 5 space freighters, 2 orbital warehouses and an opulent base on Mars as well as the ownership of a mining colony on Europa. All ended up in the hands of Economic Tempest. These shenanigans had impacted me directly, I had a contract to ship material from Europa to Mars on my small freighter before I was permabanned. My thoughts were interrupted by Jaena P as she repeated, ¡°Hello are you listening to me?¡±


    I may not be wise in the ways of women but I suspected telling her that I had faded out instead of listening to her would not go over well. Giving her my best smile reserved for Grandmothers I took over the conversation and relying on my high Charisma asked, ¡°Jaena P tell me what guild are you in, I see you have it hidden or are you currently guildless?¡± I waited for her response while staring in her eyes and was not surprised when she slowly spoke, ¡°I am in Money for Nothing and have been from the beginning. We are one of the larger guilds and have diversified into having many different revenue streams, our goal is to become one of the richest guilds on Cold Space.¡±


    ¡°We prefer to keep our business private but our scouts are always looking for any player that can help us advance. If we find a rich player such as yourself we make every effort to attract him to join the guild. With the automatic 10 percent of all player¡¯s monies given to the guild, it is profitable to acquire rich low-level members who may not even realize that they are being used. We also attempt to power level them for a fee and of course, sell crafted items to them for a fee. I am stationed here with a list of players to contact if they show up. Money for nothing would love to have you join our guild, and I am prepared to offer you free gear appropriate for your level and free leveling till you hit level 20, also I will be you sponsor and companion, and you will have full access to me, day or night.¡±


    She continued to speak but I held my hand up and she became quiet. A message had appeared and I was reading it, you have discovered the ability of Glamour, the ability to influence others, at higher tiers it can make illusions real and reality an illusion. Generally, only available to the Martian Fey, it is extremely rare for a man to receive this ability only those with the Ak¡¯amai may receive this ability.


    I was stunned, this had come out of nowhere, somehow, I had been changed by my interactions with the Martians, I knew I was seeing into a parallel dimension but I had not realized there was more to it than that. I would have to take some time to explore this further, but right now I seemed to have the ability to cast a glamour upon Jaena P, which looked a hell of a lot like hypnosis to me. I could live with that, but to be honest, these abilities were unfamiliar with me and I could not rely on them. Not yet. I needed more information.


    Looking up at Jaena P I smiled at her and then said, ¡°Jaena P thank you for your offer but I am not ready to join a guild yet, I think you have done a great job and your offers are very tempting but for now I go alone on my own.¡± Waving goodbye I walked back to the table and activated the terminal and began to scan the starter abilities again. In the end, I choose 4 that seemed to be the most helpful to me.


    Artifice engineer, the ability to disassemble and repair machines and gear. Tier 1


    Encephalon Cybernetics, joining the mind of both man and machine into one. Tier1


    Mentalism, the study that mind is the fundamental reality and that objects of knowledge exist only as aspects of the subject''s consciousness. Tier 1


    Quantum theory studies, dealing with the possibility of a parallel universe in a hypothetical self-contained reality co-existing with one''s own.


    The choices I made how to do more with where I was headed than where I was, I hoped that my choices would pan out, taking one last glance at my stats and abilities I saw,


    Abilities


    Unarmed Combat, third tier.


    Stealth, fourth tier.


    Tactics, third tier.


    Leadership, second tier.


    Tech weapon mastery, third tier.


    Classical weapon mastery, first tier.


    Artifice engineer, the ability to disassemble and repair machines and gear, first tier.


    Encephalon Cybernetics, joining the mind of both man and machine into one, first tier.


    Mentalism, the study that mind is the fundamental reality and that objects of knowledge exist only as aspects of the subject''s consciousness, first tier


    Quantum theory studies, dealing with the possibility of a parallel universe in a hypothetical self-contained reality co-existing with one''s own, first tier.


    Stats


    Intelligence, 35


    Strength, 65


    Agility, 25


    Knowledge, 45


    Charisma, 40


    My stats had not changed that would happen when I leveled next. My next step was to safely head out and go to the Provincial Assembly building to apply for my letter of marque then to head to the Asimov Institute to receive my first two assignments. The problem was to get there alive.

 chapter 10

    <ul style="margin-top: 0in" type="disc">


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">King, Queen.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Prince, Princess.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Duke, Duchess.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Marquess, Marchioness.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Earl, Countess.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Viscount, Viscountess.</li>


    <li style="margin: 0px 0px 4px; color: #222222; line-height: normal; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline">Baron, Baroness.</li>


    </ul>


    Along with more minor titles, that people could purchase the system worked and the world''s governments were stable, at least in the game. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    With that done I left the building and headed to Hotel Excelsior which was located just down the road. It was a secure facility that visiting gov¡¯t officials often used. I needed a secure lodging for a few hours, it was time to log out. I had stuff to do in the real world, the game cube in my basement needed a closer look. If could find out that it actually had a kill switch I could go to the police and the Cold Space GMs. That would deal with Ong Bai for about 15 to life. I also wanted to go over the old files NASA had opened to the public. The game was based in a large part on real world history and perhaps a clue would be found in the information about the Rover Spirit.


    Plus, I had a few hours of video editing to do, I was not sure how I would deal with the Martians, by letting the gaming world know about them I might be hurting any chance I had of developing a relationship with them. Having relationships with the different factions was what could make or break the game for players. Still, they had not wanted to be found since man settled on Mars and had been successful in that. My musings were interrupted by Noa¡¯s message, she would start the process of commissioning the building of the ship, and would see me in a few days. With that off my mind I engaged the security of my suite and informed the hotel I did not want to be disturbed for several days. Finally laying down on the bed I began to logout, my last thought in game was wondering what Noa had meant when she said she had a surprise for me.


    The noise of the cube was the first thing I heard, the hum of a fan, the clicks of the GameCube opening, and then the light slowly getting brighter. I slowly stretched and then relaxed, my muscles were a little a little sore a little stiff but not too bad. Exiting the GameCube, I walked to the shower, and slowly began to soap up under the heat of the water. Opening my mouth, I moaned out loud, my body beginning to relax under the pressure. Finally stopping the water, I dried myself and then walked to my bedroom, grabbing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I quickly dressed and then went and made some tea. Earl Grey with a hint of lemon and honey, then sitting down I checked my messages while sipping my tea.


    Lots of fan mail, and a couple of pre-approved credit card crap letters. Putting it aside I grabbed my phone and sent off a couple of texts to my buddies, I needed to have a closer look at the GameCube in the basement. I then closed my eyes and relaxed. The beeping of my phone woke me up and I glanced down to see what the message was. It was my buddy and he was right to the point, dude your basement was broken in and the GameCube was stolen while you were playing. The landlord called me and I had the window repaired but other than that I have been waiting for you to surface.

 Chapter 11

    <h1>Chapter 11</h1>


    Taking a moment to examine the 5 doorways that were spaced evenly around the room I observed that the outline was of each was glowing with a faint white hue. Examining them closer it became apparent the color and the slight humming noise was coming from what looked like miniature lightning bolts constantly flashing all around the circumference of the door. I held my hand up to the doorway but could not feel any difference. My musings were interrupted but Winston moaning in his sleep and then suddenly whispering Khloe. Damn it, there would be no more reruns of old reality shows for my little dragon. He clearly was fixated on the Kardashians, probably from watching multiple episodes of the old reality series. Looking to the past to satisfy the desires of the future. Not sure that ever works. The best-case scenario was to learn from the past not live in it. Not sure where I had heard that quote but it had stuck with me for many years.


    Turning my attention back to the doorways I observed that they were all the same, the only difference was the background color of the doorway itself, they ranged from gray to green, in no apparent order. Without having any knowledge of what doorway led where I choose at random and simply stepped through the gray one. As I passed through I felt a wave of energy enter me and then shatter throughout my body,then suddenly I was through.


    Text appeared as soon as I made it through the opening and I read, Welcome player you are the first to find and explore this area of the game and will be rewarded XP, search for useful items, but beware, this is a war zone. As soon as I read the text it disappeared and I was back to falling but fortunately, the ground was there to catch me. Landing on my feet, thanks to the cyborg reflexes and built in combat computer. I glanced around, the CC or combat computer scanning my surroundings looking for danger or anything out of the ordinary.


    There were no life forms or mechs nearby, in fact, I seemed to be in some kind of an enclosed arboretum. The trees were tall and leafy, I did not recognize them but I could tell by the colors that they were nothing I had ever seen before. I slowly made my way through the trees until I came to the curved wall. Looking up at the curvature of the wall I could see through the clear material that I was in space, on a huge space station. I was in a dome, one of hundreds that were joined by tubular corridors, many of these domes held plants, and nearby were three larger domes that held water. Their size was immense, a whale could swim in one of them. The other domes extended in a connected maze for kilometers. It was like a trapezoidal icositetrahedron, an immense structure that held different biospheres, the whole thing reminded me of a Hoberman Sphere, an isokinetic structure that could contract and expand.


    It was amazing and beautiful and terrifying, but most of all it was alien. This was not something that man had built, the question was who had built it? It was evident that all was not well with the structure, many of the domes showed signs of damage, and several had suffered violent decompression. There were domes that were half melted and along with passageways that were broken in half. Somewhere in this maze was a power plant and a life support module. There was the possibility that crew members would still be on board somewhere. Or whatever had fought them. I glanced around but could see no ghostly openings, or entranceways, my only hope of getting off this space station was to find the command module and try to familiarize myself with alien tech.


    Winston who had just woken up purred at me, ¡°Hungry.¡± Then he flew into the air and in a shimmer just disappeared. I wish I knew how the hell he did that. The dragon was not an infant but more a teenager I decided, all he wants to do is eat, sleep and fantasize about the Kardashians. I was on my own again, and I had a lot of ground to cover. I began to walk around the circumference of the dome I was in, I was looking for several things, the door, a maintenance locker, and a terminal. Nothing as advanced as this station could function without a central CPU monitoring all the domes and maintaining homeostasis. Walking the circumference of the dome I arrived at the exit. It was a simple airlock that led into the connecting passageway to the next dome. Beside it was a large storage locker, opening it revealed gardening tools. They looked much like a rake or shovel would look like, form follows function is a universal truth.


    The computer terminal that lit up when I opened the doorway was of interest, the keyboard was larger than normal and while it held keys that might be letters it also held larger keys that looked like h¨¤nz¨¬, simplified Chinese writing. I could not make heads or tails of it, I had no linguistic abilities. I videoed everything and then left the shed. Going to the airlock door, I pushed the large button and was rewarded with the doorway opening. The air had a musty smell to it but was breathable,I did not really breath anymore but try convincing the mind that it did not need to breathe after a lifetime of sucking in air. Sure as hell did not work for me. Entering the passage, I walked the 20 meters to the next biosphere and pushed the button to open the airlock. Entering I could immediately detect the pleasant smell of flowers, they whole area was blanketed with little hillocks that held thousands of plants many of which were flowering. It was surreal, looking past the flowers and seeing the huge space stations, several of the other domes glinting with light while others were darkened, broken, and battered.


    I transferred through several domes while trying to make my way deeper into the center until I finally came to a dome that was damaged. It held air, but there were signs that a violent struggle had taken place here. This dome had not held plants but rather small areas that joined others with several larger areas along the outer walls. It reminded me of a hive and looked like it had been one of the crew''s living areas. The walls showed evidence of energy weapon deployment and the bodies scattered across the dome were a testament to the fighting that had taken place here. I began to search the area around the circumference, stopping at the first set of bodies that I saw. They were Martians, no doubt about that, they were positioned in fighting formations with benches and tables piled up in front of them.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The blasters that their enemies had used had cut right through the barricade and brought an end to the resistance. I bent down and picked up a hand weapon it was of unfamiliar design. Looking like a flintlock it had a ghostly rune on the grip and when my hand touched the rune the weapon powered up. Above my thumb, three small lights glowed red then yellow than green, once all three were green a larger orange light came on. The trigger was much like a trigger on a gun with a finger guard protecting it. Why not, I thought and turned to aim the gun towards the middle of the dome I pulled the trigger as I sighted in at the nearby inner wall. With no noise, three emerald beams shot out of the barrel one after the other faster than a human eye could see. They hit the wall and punched on through it going through three other walls before stopping.


    I stared at the weapon and then tried firing it 2 more times in rapid succession, again both shots produced similar results, and I noted that the lights did not change on the back of the gun. I slipped the gun into my waistband and continued to walk along the outer rim, stopping to check on all the other weapons I came across. None worked but I resolved to check each one. If I could find a couple more to take back and have Noa reverse engineer then, well that could be a game breaker. Seeing nothing of interest I began to cut through the center of the hive. It was slow going but I hoped to locate other useful items. Nothing turned up and eventually I gave up and continued to the next biosphere. The hours passed with me exploring about four of the ecosystems. Only the one had held crew the rest held plants.


    I decided to spend the night sleeping beside a large tree that was next to a small stream the meandered across the ecosystem. I did not really need to sleep but the old brain patterns still insisted I close my eyes and rest. Settling in I looked out at the stars, the station a massive structure that surrounded me enclosed by the cold of space drifting who knows where. Shit, I did not even know if I was still in the solar system. It was beautiful and somehow sad; many people had dedicated tremendous resources to this station and now it was abandoned and damaged. I wanted to know more, did the Martians build it and if so why, what was the purpose. Eventually, my eyes closed and I drifted off to the tinkle of water splashing on the rocks.


    I opened my eyes and stretched, old habits die hard. Sitting up I looked around, still the same peaceful habitat. The next three biospheres would not be so peaceful, they were damaged and showed evidence of fighting. Washing my face in the stream I thought of what I might find, I was hoping for more weapons but any kind of tech would be worthwhile. Finishing off I made my way to the airlock and entered the passageway. The airlock at the far end was damaged, and would not release fully. Grabbing the edge, I began to exert my strength and managed to slide the airlock to the side far enough to enter. I hoped that the biosphere would continue to hold air as the airlock was now wedged and I doubted that I could close it.


    Stepping through I once again observed the effects of a battle. This one was more severe, with melted puddles of floor material and walls that were reduced to mere rubble. I began to walk along the outer edge when suddenly my CC took over and I dived behind a pile of rubble, the hum of an energy weapon firing loud in my ear. My Hud suddenly displayed my body, I had taken a hit in the left shoulder and lost about 55 percent mobility in that arm. Glancing down I could see through the cauterized skin to the alloyed structure of my skeleton. The damage was pretty severe, with melted holes and shorted wires along with damaged stepper motors. The CC was still actively tracking the firing of the energy weapon as my body slid further down the pile of rubble and entered a small opening in one of the many building that filled the dome.


    My HUD was also cycling through what looked like different wiring diagrams of my upper torso until it stopped on one that turned a green color. I quickly read on the HUD Alternative circuit path found rerouting wiring, estimated 76 percent use of the arm. Well, that was better than a kick in the teeth, but what the hell had shot and damaged me. I was a fool, I should have been paying attention, I had been warned that this was a war zone. In fact, it occurred to me I had been playing the game like an idiot all along, doing things that put me in danger and not taking proper precautions. I could hear the sound of the rubble out front slowly being reduced by the blaster fire so I pushed my self-recriminations to the back of my mind. I needed to be in the now and to identify, target and eliminate the threat.


    I scanned my environment and noted that stairs leading upwards. I climbed up and proceeded to the top of the tower, it was 4 stories high and was the highest structure still standing in the area. The rooftop had a 2-meter-tall wall around it. Crouching down I walked to where the sound was loudest. I did not want to look over the wall if they spotted me I would be trapped. Looking around I noted that due to the damage the domes clear panels were now clouded with some being opaque and others having taken energy bolts had the look of polished metal, a speculum of panels fused together. They were a mirror and by positioning myself I could see what I was dealing with.


    In the overhang of a building that had almost collapsed in on itself was what looked like a cigar tube on tracks with two forward mounted fully articulated weapons, one of which was repeatedly firing into the debris at the front of my building. At the back of the tube standing up were several narrow pieces of metal, the antennae of sensors I would guess. One of the tracks was damaged, and that was what had kept me alive. The weapon could not move and could only maintain a constant barrage directed at where it had last seen me. I had several options, I could use my modern weapons to attempt to disable it. I could attempt to use my ancient Martian runic weapon which I had decided to name the Merrifield but did not know if it had the oomph to deliver the kill.


    I could also scout a way past the weapon and continue on my journey but that idea did not agree with me. I had to take the weapon out, and then attempt to see if some of the tech could be salvageable. Being here was too big an opportunity to waste,the more alien tech I could find and document the greater my chances of doing well in the game were. I focused on the mirrored panels, with CC provided all the input I needed I pulled both of my weapons out. The Merrifield and the Winchester-Crossman which I loaded with high impact BBs, set to fire in bursts of twenty. Taking a deep breath in I stood up and with the target locked in my CC, I began to fire.

 Chapter 12

    Chapter 12


    The air smelled of ozone and dried blood, the results of the battle between myself and the drone. I had won the fight but the cost was high, I had taken a hit to my left arm which was already damaged. I had also received damage to my left side, both my hip and ribs were damaged. My CC was busy evaluating and rerouting all the connections it could to attempt to restore a percentage of functionality to my battered body. The truth was if I was not a cyborg I would be dead, but even cyborgs have limits and I was getting very close to mine. Suddenly my interface displayed, Functionality restored to 65 percent, repairs needed urgently, code red.


    ¡°Damn it,¡± I swore softly to myself. This was not going as I had planned, but what choice did I have, I was stuck on an abandoned Space station that had been through a series of battles. It still had live drones, none of which would be friendly to me. My goal was to make it to the center of the series of eco-domes that carried a diverse selection of flora. So far, I had not seen any fauna but that was not to say I would not find any. The station comprised of hundreds of these eco-domes all linked by tunnels and many of them showing damage from the battles that had taken place long ago.


    Sighing, I stood up and began to limp my way out of the building, I wanted to check out the drone and see if there were anything of value left. Once I made my way off this station any ancient tech would be worth its weight in gold. Exiting the building I managed to crawl over the top of the heap of rubble in front of the building, then sliding down it I ended up on my feet and slowly limped over to the destroyed drone. It was battered and had several holes in it from my Merrifield and the Winchester-Crossman. I could see some of the tracking mechanism and circuitry as well as the motors and gears that had driven, aimed and fired the weapons.


    Carefully pulling and bending open the panels, I exposed more of the drone¡¯s inner workings.


    With the use of a couple of jagged pieces of metal, I was able to un attach one of the guns which did not appear to be damaged. Putting it away I looked further into the body of the drone but found nothing I could use. After making sure I had taken enough pictures I left the area and made my way deeper into the maze of structures. Several hours passed without finding anything of use as I made my way across the dome to the exit. Going through the airlock I made my way to the next dome. Entering this dome, I observed that while it was a lightly wooded ecosystem it had been used as a camp for the defenders who had abandoned most if not all of their gear. Jackpot I thought as I took in the neatly stacked chests and other gear that was on the ground.


    I could not tell how long this stuff had been here but the fact that it was covered in a layer of dirt and leaves almost 20 centimeters deep it had been a long time. The chest was made of a white plastic like material and had simple clasps keeping them closed. I began by opening the first row of 4 chests, they contained what I guessed was emergency food rations. The second row of chests contained some kind of a machine, once all the chests were opened the 4 units powered up and then floated about 2 meters above the ground while somehow joining together. This all took about 10 seconds then suddenly I was aware that the strange unit was initiating a scan of me as it began to circle me. My CC informed me that the scan was deep and thorough and that it could not be jammed. Suddenly the machine stopped bobbing up and down and began to flash a series of low-powered beams at me. The CC then told me that the machine was attempting to scan the communication channel and was rapidly accessing all the information that the various CPUs that were a part of my cyborg body. Once it was done I suddenly received a communication link up from the machine and we began to actually communicate.


    ¡°I am unit 2B73, a self-contained mobile medical unit. I have determined that the cyborg elements that comprise 80 percent of your body are beyond the scope of my repair skill, the skin, hair and other living tissues that are damaged can be repaired. I have sent out an emergency call for a cyborg repair unit, once it arrives and completes your structural and electrical repairs I can repair the cell damage. For now, I would encourage you to rest by sitting down, regardless of the fact that you are more machine than flesh the psyche of the flesh has troubling accepting any damage to the body. Shock is a real possibility.¡±


    I nodded, this med unit was right, I felt a little weird every time I looked down at my ruined skin and saw the machine within. Sitting down I began to ask the med drone what had happened here and how long ago that the fighting had taken place and several other questions. 273b responded after a second, ¡°This station is the hope of the people of Mars. It was built to contain a sample of the many different ecosystems that comprised Mars before the dry times. The station went active 490 years ago a Martian year is 678 days long.¡±


    Thinking about what 2B had just said I realized that the station was almost a thousand years old. That explained a few things, but I still had many questions. ¡°2B, who were fighting on the station and why, also are there any survivors or autonomous units still active?¡± Knowledge is power and knowing if I might encounter more armed resistance might mean the difference between life and death.


    ¡°There are no survivors, however, there are several drones and a large number of autonomous self-healing operational equipment that is still active. Most of the ASHOEs are from the Martian faction that opposed the construction of the station.¡± On Mars, there are 2 primary races that developed. Over the years, a peace was forged as both peoples developed. During the time that the Cha¡¯crae (spirit power) was discovered a split occurred in the previously good relations between the two races. The humanoid Martians began to develop the use of the spirit and science often combining them into effective items, such as the Martian weapon you have attached to your body. The other race of Martians the Draiktha, the people of the Black Sands used the Cha¡¯crae as a focus to look for answers outside of science, they began to search for power and found something. Something dark, they call it Scren¡¯toa the dark one and believe that it is a God that sucks all matter and energy to itself, eating it all and getting stronger. They believe that they are chosen to guide it to Mars and then receive their reward.¡±


    Sounds like a black hole I thought to myself. ¡°So once the station was completed these people attacked the station, what was their purpose?¡± I asked. ¡°Did they want to destroy what Mars once had for an ecosystem?¡± I was curious as to why there was a need to destroy this station.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    2B explained, ¡°The Draiktha over time have come to hate those that dwell in the deep places, they believe that Scren¡¯toa would have all sentient life undergo hardship, to be purged and made ready for his coming. There is no place for softness or memories of a different life, there is only burning sand, wind and the dust. It was taken as an insult to their God Scren¡¯toa that an effort was made to preserve Mars. As such they directed their full fury upon us, using technology that they had stolen from the Deep Dwellers, the Burning Sand people staged an attack and tried to destroy the station.¡±


    I had to ask, ¡°So after this attack, the station was left abandoned, why didn¡¯t the Deep Dwellers return to the station and fix things, why did they leave it abandoned, and why has nobody found it yet, the solar system is a pretty busy place these days? Also, who is now in charge of the station, is there a central AI running things or is the station just abandoned?¡±


    2B spoke, ¡°The station is not accessible without a teleporter, once the battle began the commander attempted to shift the station through hyperlinks to its destination, the area of the asteroids. Unfortunately, the hyperlinks were damaged and now we are sitting in a drifting bubble of time and space, a pocket universe. Occasionally we come close to the present time but do not have the means of opening the hyperlinks without central control, and the AI that ran the station.¡± 2B did not express emotion in his voice but I felt something, sadness perhaps from the alien robot.


    Mentally making a list of things to do I could only acknowledge that I needed more information before I could decide on my course of action. ¡°2B how long until we drift close to the present time?¡±


    ¡°We will be at our closest point in 5 years, then it will be 122 years before we drift close again.¡±


    I shrugged, 5 years, I would have 5 years to figure this out, if I could not find a portal passageway then I would have to activate the AI assume command and then fix the hyperlinks. Suddenly I saw a rectangular floating box approaching and then it began to communicate with 2B in high range radio frequency.


    Soon after it turned to me and said, ¡°Welcome sir I am a repair bot, called from hibernation by 2B73 to attempt to help repair you. My designation in your language would be NTB12 if I may analyze you I can correlate the data with 2B73 and then develop a repair/replace plan.¡±


    I nodded at the chirpy little robot and watched as I was the subject of various probes, scans, and pictures, at least I did not have to pee in a cup. During this time, I found out that I being the only person on the ship who had the Ak¡¯amai ability was by default now in charge. I was looked at as a Deep Dweller Martian or perhaps as something else but related to the Deep Dwellers. At any right, I was unofficially in Command of the station. I watched the two bots begin to communicate with each other occasionally asking my questions about my cyborg physiology along with the biological physiology of humans. I had full records in my data banks and was able to soon pass along the needed information in what amounted to short range microwave communication. I also had the bots download to me all the information that I could handle with my memory chips.


    With this data I now had access to, I could introduce whole new technology and change the current Solarian economy. I would have to be careful how I released the information, in fact, I might not release it but rather hold onto it and modify the manufacturing capability of my asteroid to produce advanced tech, that only I would have access to. It would greatly assist my efforts to deal with Bai Ong. I needed to think about this, it was a game changer. I also wondered where Me¡¯kima was the little spirit dragon had been gone for a while now.


    Interrupting my musings 2B began to speak, ¡°Sir, we have developed a strategy to deal with your healing and repairs. I have called several construction units to come here to build a small repair facility, in which we will work on you. By including our technology along with yours, we can rebuild you, making you faster stronger and more capable of survival. However, to do this we need to dissolve your consciousness from your body for a set period of time. Do you agree with this?¡±


    Why not I thought, I have the time and am relatively safe here, plus who knew what the addition of Martian technology to my cyborg body could do. I nodded at 2B and said, ¡°Just make sure I wake up.¡± Upon hearing my words NTB shot a ray of some kind which played over my body and suddenly I was asleep. Sleeping perhaps is not the right way to describe what was happening, after all, how could a circuit board, powered by a software program dream, yet that is what happened.


    I had closed my eyes and then I was floating in space, there was no time or place it was just a huge space. The sun was visible as well as the planets, I could focus in on where they were supposed to be and they would become visible. Eventually, I grew tired of being a telescope looking at the planets and began to look at the stars, which while beautiful did not grow into other suns with planets in orbits. After a period of time, I had no way of telling how long, I was aware that I felt something. It was that funny feeling you get when someone is staring at you and you look up and the girl across the room quickly looks away. You know it was her but there is nothing that can be said.


    I began to search all across my field of vision and eventually I noticed what was staring at me. It was a Me¡¯kima, but not a baby, this spirit Dragon was huge, easily the size of a large capacity transport plane. It stayed motionless in space observing me, while I was observing it. Almost see through the body was dark but stars could be seen twinkling right through it. The wings were folded alongside the body and the creature rather looked like he was resting on his body, just floating in space. The eyes sparkled with intelligence and I knew that this was not some kind of animal but a highly evolved life form. After staring at each other for several minutes the dragon moved his right claw, pointing it at me and suddenly I was gone.


    Slowly I opened my eyes and extended my other senses. Where was I and what was this weird interface in front of me, I did not recognize any of the symbols or words. My CC was not actively warning me but I was aware that something else was happening. Within a moment of regaining consciousness, the interface changed to English and I could read what it was saying.


    Congratulations, software operating system upgrade, you have been upgraded with alien software technology that has been programmed to function within the parameters of the original earth programing.


    Congratulations, your genetic disposition has been altered by Transduction which is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector. Your DNA is now 25 percent Martian.


    Congratulations you have achieved a level.


    Congratulations you have achieved a level.


    Congratulations you have achieved a level.


    Congratulations you have achieved a level.


    Congratulations you have achieved a level.


    Huh, this was interesting, how long was I unconscious I wondered, checking my internal clock saw that I had been out for 4 years. Holy Crap.

 Chapter 13

    Chapter 13


    My head ached and my vision became suddenly blurry as script flashed by on my interface. After a couple of minutes it stopped and suddenly the words UPDATE COMPLETED flashed red and then my interface cleared. Checking the log I observed that there were several changes. First I saw that I was now capable of reading and writing Martian. I also was for all practical purposes considered a Martian by any AIs on the station. I received a couple of achievements as well as 5 levels. Very interesting stuff, apparently I had been in the game continuously longer than any other player. Also, I had managed to take over an alien space station while I was unconscious.


    Clearly, something was not right, perhaps I had been in the game too long, I needed to log out and rest, develop a plan and make it happen. I hit the log out and waited but nothing happened. Something was wrong and I was starting to feel a deep foreboding, the damn log out would not work. I opened the interface and hit the button to send a message to a GM. Nothing, it was grayed out. WTF is happening. Taking a breath I stopped thinking for a moment and tried to calm myself. Looking around I saw that I was in a medical canister, pushing up the lid swung over and I could see that I was in a dim room, the familiar shape of 2B was in the corner watching an old show. An old earth show, what the hell had happened while I had been out.?


    ¡°2B,¡± I called out, ¡°What the hell has happened, and what are you watching, shit is that an old Steven Seagal movie? Man, he is not even fat in this one. What the heck, what is happening here.¡± I stared at the droid as he turned to face me, waiting for an explanation, for something to tell me what has happened. I was not disappointed as 2B began to speak.


    ¡°Duke, it is good to see that you have healed and are now awake. I can see that you have many questions, and I will attempt to answer them while explaining what has been happening. First, you have been in the med unit for a long time. Four years and a few days. Unfortunately, when we tried to repair you and heal your body there were complications. We could not successfully heal your body, it was damaged to badly and our tech was developed to heal Martians, not Human Cyborgs. In the end, we had to combine Human and Martian DNA to be able to help you. For all practical purposes, you are now considered a Martian on this space station and all of the remaining droids and AIs.¡±


    ¡°Furthermore we discovered that your cerebral processing unit was damaged about 3 weeks into the repairs. It was shutting down and there was nothing that we could do to stop it. In the end, it was decided to clone the software and ram along with all memories and replace everything with Martian tech. 2B stopped at this point and then said, ¡°I can see that your functions are fluctuating, do you want me to continue?¡±


    Looking at the droid I nodded and climbed out of the pod then seeing a bench I walked over to it and sat down. Nodding at 2B I told him to continue as I opened access to the forums and the net. The first thing I did was double check the date. The second thing I did was swear. It had not been 4 years it had been 8, the Martian year was twice as long as the earth year. My calendar was displaying the Martian date and time. Well, this just sucks I have been in the game for 8 years, all my plans had been mothballed. I also had to find out what was happening with me, my body, my home, my life. A few seconds were all that it took, and the news was not good. I was dead. Dead, what the hell. I sure did not feel dead. In fact, now that the update had completed and I had some time to let it sink in I had to say that I felt great. My mind was much sharper than it had been and physically I felt like I could lift a tank and throw it. Suddenly I focused on what 2B had just said. ¡°Repeat what you just said,¡± I asked.


    2B immediately began to speak again, ¡°We have replaced all the main processing units with Quantum processors, it is a substantial upgrade over your previous hardware. Also, we replaced your skeletal and muscular systems with upgraded hardware, all of it military Martian tech. You are now much more durable along with being stronger and faster. You are still you but just better. We combined our military computer software with your CC software, I think you will be pleased with the result.¡±


    I nodded, that explained a lot of what had happened, but I still had questions, I knew why I could not log out as there was nothing to log out too. The question of why I could not contact a GM still remained. I continued to listen to as 2B explained that as the last living martian on the space station I was automatically elevated to the position of commander. A few questions later and I finally knew enough to have my curiosity satisfied. I fell silent as I thought of all that I had learned, putting it all together in my head my theory was that the game''s AI had determined that without a link to my body I was considered an NPC. The difference was that I was fully self-determined, I was not following a planned script like all NPCs did.


    This could lead to some interesting developments. I still had to escape from the time warp the space station was in and then determine what had happened to Noa and everything else. Also, it was apparent that I was in shock over the fact that I was dead. Nothing else could explain why I felt so peaceful. Granted I was ready to collapse once I had read the news but now I felt calm. It was something I would have to deal with later. In the meantime, I had to get to the central command sphere of the station and bring it back online and then bring the station back to the solar system.


    ¡°2B, how many spheres are between us and command central and what kind of forces do we have available, I am sure that there are more ashoes waiting to block us? I have roughly a couple of years to get there and reactivate everything.¡±


    ¡°There are 29 spheres between us and command central in the most direct route. Of them, we have lost contact with 21 spheres which leads us to believe that enemy droids have entrenched themselves within those spheres. Currently, there are 5 combat droids available along with a few worker and repair droids, I am the only med droid left.¡±


    This is getting better and better I thought. ¡°Alright, what about weapons and armor what do we have? Those damn ashoes are tough and hit like a mule. It won¡¯t be a cakewalk. We need something strong enough to take them out fast sphere by sphere so we can keep moving. My BB gun and the Merrifield were not going to cut it, I needed something better.¡±


    2B paused for a moment and then said, ¡°I am sending you a list of all the inventory we can access unfortunately weapons were stored in the storage units on the other side of command central. What you see is what you get, and you can take that to the bank.¡±


    What, that line was from the Seagal movie that 2B had been watching, where the hell did he get access to that movie. ¡°2B, where did you get access to that movie, and why are you talking like that? I mean it is a little strange watching you a Martian droid trapped in a space station cut off from the universe quoting lines from a 20¡¯s century movie.¡± I was beginning to feel a little surreal as I waited for his response, my guess was that when they had cloned my memories they had done a little exploring. Turns out I was right, 2B spoke at great length of all the movies, music and gaming I had done. He even mentioned that human sex was identical to Martian sex. When he finally stopped talking I stood up and asked, ¡°Where are my weapons?¡±


    I was actually stunned to learn that they had built the Merrifield into my left arm and the palm of my left hand would shoot the energy out. They had done the same thing with the Winchester-Crossman, it was now built into my right arm, to reload I would have to swallow the BB¡¯s. 2B assured me that it was harmless and the only way to reload the weapon. He began to go on about me being a modern Iron Man when I held up my hand to silence him.


    ¡°No more movies or videos, 2B. Not even a rerun. Got it.¡± My voice was flat and I was not going to accept any answer than yes sir. ¡°Also I want all recordings of my memory totally deleted, no copies. If they would ever fall into the wrong hands it would be the end of me. I also want you to send me the complete schematics of the station. I spent the next few hours going over all the available information on the station and what had happened, once I was finished reviewing all the material I stood up and began to walk, I knew where I was now and had a running map displaying my area and if I choose to enlarge it, the entire station. The route to command central was marked with a blue line, and the spheres with ashoes were glowing red.


    No doubt it would be a challenge, with only 5 combat droids we would have to use stealth to defeat the enemy. A toe to toe slugging match would cost me, and I could not afford to lose any droids. As I walked into the next sphere I was taken aback by the beauty of it. It was nighttime and a moon was visible on the horizon. It may have been a computer simulation but with the mist rising from the stream the meandered through the trees it looked damn real. It was a far cry from the bleakness of space where everything was cold and empty. A minuscule world that held a beauty that no one but me had seen in a long time.


    I sat by the stream and watched the moon shining its light into the sphere. An illusion but so realistic, knowing that nothing was outside of the station did not stop one from believing that the moon was there. After several minutes I sat up and began to walk back to where I had left 2B, the little droid had grown on me and I felt like talking to him. I needed to know where the emergency spacesuits were and also to meet my combat droids. I had an idea that could considerably shorten the time it would take to get to command central.


    Entering the room I had left 2B at I called out to him, ¡°2B show me where the combat droids are, it is the time we met and began to discuss tactics.¡± With 2B leading, we went into the next sphere which was set up as an armory training area. I observed the combat droids there were similar to the ashoe I had defeated, long cylindrical bodies with tracks, they had a variety of antennae and weapons exposed.They were a dusty gray color and looked fully functional. As we walked over they all formed a half circle in front of me.


    ¡°Alright, I want your names and status please,¡±I said. The first one on the right spoke, ¡°I am the combat droid 34t2 and am fully operational with a full load out.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I nodded and spoke, ¡°You will be known as Canadian. Next please.¡± I spent the next several minutes naming the droids after several popular beers. I had Corona, Bud, Coors, and Pilsner along with Canadian. They were all fully deployable and ready for action.


    As we walked over to a holographic display of the station 2B spoke, ¡°Duke, I am confused, why did you rename the combat droids. You have a perfect memory and would have no problem remembering the designation of each droid? Why did you rename them?¡±


    Glancing over at the med droid I smiled and said, ¡°They remind me of beer cans. Plus I like real names and I like beer. For the foreseeable future, I am stuck here and I am trying to make sure that I can have some enjoyment in this life. If something as simple as naming a droid can help me I will do it.¡± We approached the display and I began to concentrate on the task with all the droids arranged in a circle around me. ¡°Our goal is to gain access to command central and to reactivate the stations AI, in order to achieve this we have 21 spheres with ashoes entrenched, In order to pass through the spheres we will have to destroy the enemy, we can¡¯t risk them regrouping behind our back and attacking from the rear. The only other option I can think of is to leave the confines of the station and bypass the ashoes then enter the station at command central or as close as we can get, I am looking for suggestions here.¡±


    There was silence for a moment then Canadian spoke up, ¡°The plan has merit if we can bypass all the spheres and access the station which should be feasible. The initial attack was centered on command central and the enemy breached the station in three locations, here, here and here. Once they entered the station they attempted to enter command central sphere, they failed as it is armored and went into defensive mode, suffice to say they did not get an entry. Asa result of their failure they began to spread out through the spheres fighting and destroying as much as the station as they could. We can expect some resistance as I am sure that several ashoes were left in the three spheres joining command central. If we can take them out quickly we can focus on entering command central and then once in we concentrate on activating the AI, regain control of the station and then portal back to normal space.¡±


    I nodded, it was my plan and would save a lot of fighting. ¡°Alright what do we need to do to make this happen? I will need a suit and weapons as well as a way to travel on the outside of the station. What do we have?¡± Several minutes later I was shown a suit that could be fabricated with our resources. It had 2 shoulders mounted weapons, one looked like a Gatling gun and the other was a missile pod containing 10 close combat missiles. The suit had built in thrusters and contained two handheld weapons in the leg holsters as well as an energy blade strapped to my back. I also had what looked like a rifle which I would be holding. All in all, it was bad ass and would provide armor and protection with its built-in energy shield. The suits simple AI would merge with my combat computer providing me with advanced scanning and command features.


    Nodding I looked at the droids and said, ¡°Alright let''s get this made and then begin the operation, codenamed Checkmate.¡± I turned around and began to walk around the sphere looking at the different areas that had been set up for combat training when suddenly there was a flash of light and a spiral appeared on the other side of the sphere. It began to spin and then disappeared with a flash leaving behind a woman. My droids had gone into stealth mode and vanished from view. I thought of doing the same but wanted to know what the hell was happening.


    Walking over to the woman I nodded at her as she smiled at me and then spoke, ¡°Duke, I am so pleased to meet you, when I was informed that your account had become active again it caused quite a stir among the GMs. You had been missing from the game for a long time, and we were not expecting to see you again.¡±


    ¡°Why was that?¡± I asked, ¡°Because I am dead?¡± holding up my hands I waved them at her, ¡°I don¡¯t think I am dead, I don¡¯t look dead and don¡¯t feel dead. So why don¡¯t you tell me what is happening here, how can my body be dead out of the game and yet here I am alive?¡± I watched her as I spoke and saw that my words had hit her hard. She had swallowed and then nodded at me as she walked closer to me.


    ¡°First let me say that I am apologizing from the corporation and that this should never have happened. It was all a series of incidents that began to join together, with the end result having you trapped here for 8 earth years in a coma. Unfortunately, the game cubes were not designed to sustain an individual for that length of time. Your cube sent out an emergency signal, but all efforts to revive you failed after being on life support for a year the courts made the decision to turn off the power. We fought them as your case had been linked to the media but did not win. In the end, you died and were cremated. The resulting publicity of your case caused laws to be changed, and it has become a lot safer to be in the game now.¡±


    Interrupting her I asked, ¡°So how am I still alive, once my body died why did I not lose my consciousness, I mean I am still me, I have all my memories intact and I know who I am. How could this happen?


    I observed her as I waited for her reply and was not surprised to hear what she said. ¡°Duke, the fact that you''re alive still is amazing and our best analysts have been studying it. What they have come up with it fascinating in itself. First, your discovery of the Russian station and then having the AI Noa transfer your consciousness into a cyborg was both incredible and something that we had not thought possible. The software and coding for that were already but it was placed for an upcoming gaming event that had nothing to do with making a person into a cyborg. They were supposed to be AIs, not persons. However, once it happened we decided to let you continue on, after all, your game is your game and you can play it any way you like.¡± ¡°


    ¡°So that is how this happened, interesting, also please tell me what is your name?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That is a part of it and my name is Chantia,¡± she replied. The second link in this chain is your discovery of the Martians and the conflict between the two indigenous species on Mars. once again that was coded into the game for the next expansion but somehow you managed to be at the right place at the right time to start the conflict and begin the story arc. We were very surprised to see that it was you that started everything. At this time we were not aware that the Martians could teach abilities to humans, I mean the code is self-learning which is why all the NPCs are so lifelike, but still, it surprised us. Humans were not supposed to access other races abilities.¡±


    I nodded that was logical, I guess I was lucky to receive Ak¡¯amai the ability to access the spirit realm. ¡°So then what, I received the Martian talent and then?¡± I waited for Chantia to continue, the truth was I was interested in her story of my survival.


    Chantia smiled at Duke and continued, ¡°After receiving your Martian ability we observed that you were in a state of conflict and had come under attack several times. We followed up on that and determined that it was still in the boundaries of acceptable gameplay, the pirate Ong Bai wants you dead and you had made plans to go after him. Perfectly acceptable and normal, your decision to become a Privateer was well thought out. Once you were kidnapped by the pirates and thrown in the cell we, unfortunately, did not keep you under direct observation as we are pretty busy. The plan was to observe your interactions with Ong Bai once he arrived, but somehow you escaped.¡±


    I noted the Chantia was looking somewhat perplexed at this point and was not surprised when she asked me to explain how I had escaped and ended up here. ¡°Later, I want to hear the rest of what you have to say,¡± I said.


    ¡°Very well,¡± she began, ¡°Let''s continue. ¡°You somehow ended up here in a closed instance, one that was designed to be a raid for high-level players in the next expansion. We did not realize where you were, we could not track you as you were not longer on any of the main servers but rather here. We tried for about three weeks to locate you and then we received the signal that you Gamecube sent out that you were dying. Unfortunately once you expired the signal disappeared and we had to acknowledge our failure. You could imagine our surprise when the tracking software activated and informed us that you were back in the game. It had been left on searching for you all this time, someone forgot to turn it off. It had a priority signal and once it went off we were shocked. It had been years, after all, it was thought at first that it was a bug but after running diagnostics we determined that you were back in the game. We just had to find you.¡±


    Nodding I said, ¡°Well you managed and now here you are, so please continue.¡±


    ¡°Once we realized you were back we began to search, this time we included all the zones and special instances within the game. Once we located you here I was selected and sent to updated and discuss your options, so here I am. But getting back to how you are here, once we located you we reviewed all the files. Again, you managed to surprise us, by having the Martian droids rebuild your body with advanced Martian tech and then copy your consciousness over to a quantum CPU was a stroke of genius. In the game, you are now the most advanced cyborg ever created. The combination of Martian and Earth tech was a surprise. The fact that you were powered down for almost 8 years while being rebuilt was why we could not find you, and it was the fact that you had been replicated in a hybrid cyborg was what kept you alive. At least that is what the analysts believe. Just an incredible series of related events. Something that should have never happened. Yet the end result is here you are.¡±


    I was thinking of all she had said, and I was suddenly feeling nervous. I was dead in the real world and only had what could be called a digitized life here. The GMs controlled all aspects of the game and it would make sense if I just disappeared, the publicity of my being alive in the game would have a huge affect worldwide in the real world. I subvocalized and had Coors and Corona taken positions slightly off to the side of Chantia. I was not sure if we could take her down but I was not going to go peacefully. This was my life now, the only one I had. Fuck her and the other GMs. Thinking these things in an incredible burst of speed, thank you quantum computing, I smiled at Chantia and asked, ¡°So what is next. What happens to me now?¡±


    At my words, Chantia smiled and said, ¡°Now we are at a crossroads, the entire board has become involved, the general consensus it to make you go away, we don¡¯t need the legal repercussions that are guaranteed to occur. However, the chairman of the board thinks that this is an opportunity for the company. The fact that you are you and are alive in the game makes you unique. We would like to monitor you and see how you progress if you remain you fully human at the core we believe that others may be willing to undergo digitization. Really we are talking eternity here for you and any others that follow you. Our legal department is already hard at work we have managed to change the law regarding death as defined by consciousness. As long as you are you, you are still legally alive in the real world. Congratulations, your death was reported prematurely.¡±


    ¡°Holy crap, I am not legally dead?¡± I asked in stunned amazement.


    ¡°No, not anymore, with your permission we will file the needed paperwork to restore your legal standing. However there is a cost, we want you to work for the company, we need to evaluate you and how you are doing, if we offer digitization services we want to make sure people won¡¯t go insane or suffer other issues. What do you think? The alternative is this we leave you alone in the game but monitor you like crazy, everything you do will be recorded and analyzed. Also, we will not continue with our legal endeavors to bring you back to life. Taken your time and think about it, I will wait.¡±


    My thought raced at the speed of light, really what choice did I have, I needed to be alive legally for the protection it would give me and as for the rest, what had happened to me had opened a door and considering the millions of rich old people that could live forever it was going to happen. I could be part of it or be cast off once my usefulness had run its course. I would have to see this through and get the best deal I could if I had eternity I might as well make the most of it.


    ¡°Chantia, let¡¯s talk.¡± This was going to be interesting, I thought.

 Chapter 14

    Chapter 14


    ¡°So, you want me to be a company employee more or less, but you want to reset my stats to 0 and my level will be capped at 10. Are you insane? What is the average level for players now 200 to 300 plus all the gear and abilities they have earned? How the heck am I going to compete with that. Plus, you just told me that Piracy is out of hand, Ships have to travel in convoys with a Navy escort. We don¡¯t have a deal, in fact, I am being honest when I say you are really pissing me off.¡± I interrupted her raised voice as I said, ¡°I suspect that you need me more than I need you. So, cut the crap. Get real or get lost.¡±


    I stood with my arms crossed looking at Chantia as she looked back at me with anger. After several seconds, she said, ¡°Alright Duke, we won¡¯t cap you, but in order to be fair to other players, you have a choice. You can advance your levels and get a couple of abilities every fourth level. You can forgo that and seek out all your abilities from the Martians or you can choose 5 basic abilities right now that will level with you, those will be the only ones you will receive however you will be able to find and assimilate both Martian and Earth Tech. Most of which is still out there waiting to be found. As a cyborg, this offers you a lot of options as you level.¡±


    ¡°You''re right, it does if I can find and access it, but what happens if it is all out of my reach, I will be stuck with 5 basic abilities. As for having the Martians train me, there is no guarantee of that, I may never receive anything from them and as for leveling normally, by the time I hit max level I will only have half the abilities, and you know as well as I that several of the most powerful abilities have precursors, abilities that need to be maxed out before you can advance to the next tier. Really you are screwing with me here. It is a lose-lose situation for me.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing Chantia, if I thought it would be this rough I would have asked you to bring some lube before you set out to screw with me. What is the story here, why are you setting me up to fail?¡± As I looked at her I could tell that I was hitting home with my words. I decided to continue on, ¡°You know what I think, I think that you folks are worried about me, I am not an NPC nor a player, and you want to make sure that you can control me. By limiting my ability to properly progress you will have me on a short lease. Anytime I have a problem I won''t be able to deal with I will have to have the company bail me out. Good deal for you, bad deal for me.¡± I stopped talking as I observed my words hit home.


    ¡°Fine, you are smarter than our analysts thought, yes we are trying to limit your progression for several reasons, one, we want to study how you interact with the game world. Two, we do want you to feel you can turn to us for help, and you will need help. Three, we feel that with your current abilities and reputations with the different factions that you do have an unfair advantage over other players. We have worked hard, damn hard, in fact, to make sure that everyone is on an even playing field by the time they hit level 100. With you there is no way of knowing how far advanced you will be over other players by then, so sorry Duke, we will not change this, pick one of the three offers.¡±


    I stared at her, the light hazel color of her eyes complimented her tanned skin, her hair was a brownish blond and she had the body that all females start with, full breasts, narrow waist, long legs with lots of muscle tone. A very attractive package, unfortunately, I was so pissed that all I could think of was this gal held more cards than I did. I would have to do something or else I would be royally screwed. Taking a moment, I decided to choose the 5 basic abilities, they would be a new start as I could forget about what I had now. I had chosen them thinking I would be leveling in a normal capacity. That would not be happening. Now I would need new abilities to help me solo grind. Thinking for a moment I decided on a healing ability, a charisma upgrade, an advanced tech ability, a tactics ability and finally a lucky charm ability. I was going to need all the luck I could get.


    ¡°Chantia, this is what I want, a heal, a charisma upgrade, advanced tech, a tactics ability and finally a lucky charm ability. I need the heal for obvious reasons, I will be doing a lot of solo leveling. The charisma upgrade will help me in dealing with NPCs, the advanced tech will help me to locate and use any future tech I can find. I need the tactics to help me plan my battles out and the luck, will that is self-explanatory. The other thing I want is a permanent buff. I and any equipment I have will receive a 10 percent increase in durability. Also, I will accept starting at level 10, and that is where I stand. Take it or leave it.¡±


    We stared at each other for several seconds, the air filled with tension then Chantia nodded all right, ¡°Give me a moment,¡± She said. Turning around she walked off several feet and faced the outer wall, it was clear she was in communication with someone. After a couple of minutes, she nodded and then turned back to me.


    Reaching into her hip bag she pulled out five digital one use text screens. Think eBook but with a flexible screen that had one small button on the bottom of the screen. Small discreet and disposable. Handing them to me she said, ¡°Read them and your abilities will activate. You must delete your current abilities first. Once you are done I will open a portal back to Mars. Let me know when you are ready.¡±


    ¡°You can open it now, I won¡¯t be going with you, I have things to accomplish on this station still. Seeing her surprised face, I continued, ¡°You didn¡¯t think I was going to give up this prize did you, I am the Commander of this station and I have plans for it. So be a good girl and off you go.¡±


    I ignored her commands, demands, and whatever the hell else she was saying. I knew it was somewhat patronizing but I pointed at the wall and said, buzz off, I will call you if I need you but now you are stopping me from playing my game, or I suppose, living my life. She looked at me with irritation but made a circular movement with her arm and muttered something, I was not paying attention but I did hear something about a pompous prick as she walked over to the portal.


    I could not resist and muttered back, ¡°I am sure that you have many assets, but the only one I can see that looks like it is worth anything is the one I see wiggling as you walk away.¡± I know she heard me as she turned around with a red face and yelled, ¡°You son of a B¡­¡­¡±


    Her voice faded as the portal closed. Wow, that had been something else. Still, it was nice to see a pretty girl, it had been a long time. Now, however, I had to get busy, I had a ton of work that needed to be done, First I reset my abilities. It felt strange but once it was done, I noted that I was now at level 10 again. That sucked but at least I managed to avoid the long grind to 10. Anyway, It is what it is, I thought as I read each eBook and absorbed the knowledge. In the end, my avatar screen showed,


    Level 10


    Intelligence - 950/1100


    Willpower - 1200/1200


    Strength - 1200/1200


    Agility - 700/850


    Meds - 600/675


    Charisma - 950/950


    Engineering -1200/1200


    Tactics - 800/800


    Rabbit''s foot charm - 500/500


    Permanent buffs/skills


    Anvil - 15 percent durability buff


    Ak¡¯amai, the ability to access the spirit realm


    Song of Me¡¯kima used to call a Spirit Dragon companion


    The basics had remained the same with slight upgrades but the inclusion of my 5 choices made me happy. It was the best I could do and I was pleased as punch that I had retained my Martian skills. I had guessed I would, but I had been a little nervous about the reset, Fortunately, it had only reset my human abilities and skills, not my Martian ones. I had wanted to ask Chantia about the huge spirit Dragon I had seen out in space, but I had decided not to bother as our conversation had quickly degenerated. More things to learn about I thought as I accessed the Network. I pulled up all the stories about my death and was not surprised to learn that my home had been totally destroyed in a fire two days after My body was removed. Somehow, I was not surprised. The whole thing with my physical death was off, I remembered reading that at the first sign of a problem the capsule would automatically exit the player from the game while putting in a call to EMS.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    My guess was that my capsule had been tampered with and the old capsule stolen all at the same time. When I would have logged out something would have happened, the fact that I was rendered unconscious for 8 years¡¯ real time in the game had actually saved my life, sort of. I lifted up my hand and stared at it, it was as real as my physical body had been. Staring at it I suddenly felt a wave of emotion rise up within me. Sitting down with my back to the wall I thought of everything that I had just learned. Somehow, I could not stop the yell of anger and sorrow that came from deep within. After a minute the tears flowed. Tears of regret for what would never be, tears for what I had lost and finally tears of rage. Anger so hot that my combat computer activated and scanned for danger. Then finally a commitment to find out the truth and make someone pay. It was no longer a game to me it was now life or death.


    I let my thoughts lose focus for a moment and began to breathe in and out, once I felt I had achieved a state of calmness I accessed my tactics ability and read,


    Tactics, individual or group input?


    I selected group input, being curious as to what that meant. A small panel opened on my screen with a list of everyone near me I could communicate with. I selected 2B and the combat beer cans, upon which I was asked to name the tactics group. Typing in 6pack, I watched as each little picture colored up, I was then asked to set the amount of processor power to be used by the group. Selecting 40 percent, I then was asked to determine what tactical opinion I wanted an answer to.


    Thinking for a moment I began to type in my death and all the relevant information on Ong Bai as well as everything that had happened to me, I also allowed 2B to access the net to retrieve any info needed. Finally, I confirmed my decision and set the 6pack on its first tactical job, to determine with a high sense of probability who had killed me. Once the process had begun I interfaced with the control panel for the training sim and had it reset itself to a series of challenges, each one harder with the final being impossible for a single player to achieve. I had to know what I could do and how my body and combat computer would interact with me.


    Walking over to the first challenge I observed the building three stories, I had to make it to the roof. Opening up the combat interface I selected martial arts and then scrolled down through the list. It was huge, mankind had developed over the centuries many deadly techniques to hurt and kill each other. Scanning the list, I began to read and select the techniques I wanted, finally choosing.


    Judo


    Karate


    Kung Fu


    Taekwondo


    Isshin-ry¨±


    Kickboxing


    Aikido


    Jiu-jitsu


    Krav Maga


    Muay Thai


    Jeet Kun do


    Combato


    Shippalgi


    Bokator


    I selected the list and hit integrate, which flashed a green light informing me that all of the techniques had been loaded and were available to me with or without the help of the combat computer. Nodding to myself I walked into the open doorway, I was hoping to manage this level without resorting to my weapons. Anything I grabbed from the enemy would be fair game, I thought as I saw the first-person rush at me from near the stairwell.


    He swung a blade at me in an overhand chop, I grabbed his right wrist in my left hand and then yanked down while turning into him and thrusting my right fist into his right armpit. Still pulling down on his arm I extended my arm and felt something give. He flew over my shoulder and hit the wall with a crack that signifies a broken bone, walking over to where the knife had dropped I picked it up and then turned to the stairs. The enemy was down and I could proceed, climbing up the stairs I saw a man running at me as soon as he saw me. I watched as he leaped into the air in the classic Kung Fu kick, one leg extended one pulled back, one fist forward, one help up in the air. It was beautiful and reminded me of the old pictures of Bruce Lee doing a kick.


    As I thought this I was diving over the last two steps while rolling onto my back which hit the floor just as my attacker''s feet flew over me about 20 centimeters above my head. I had time to reverse grip the knife so the blade was pointing back at me at a 35-degree angle. Lifting my arm, I held the blade on the level with his crotch and felt the impact as he flew over me, the knife cutting deep as it cleaved through his body only stopping and coming out of his flesh when the blade hit the Coccyx.


    Releasing the blade, I kicked the body down the stairs and spinning around jumped to my feet as I saw three women running at me. One held a chain, the next a sword and the last attacker had a polearm. The first to get into range was the chain wielding woman, I let her swing the chain and blocked it with my arm, then grabbing the loose end I began wrapping the chain around my arm as I ran towards her. Once within range I went into a sliding spin while dropping down, this allowed me to get close enough to her to punch out with my fist wrapped in the iron of the chain. I caught her right between the legs, and let me say if you think it only hurts a man because of the family jewels being down there, then you don¡¯t know jack and should take a basic biology course.


    As she dropped to the ground while grabbing at herself I flicked the chain at the woman with the sword and she parried it I kicked her in the side of her leg right at the kneecap. I could hear the noise of tearing cartilage and snapping tendons, and as she dropped her sword to grab her knee I punched her in the throat, and as she flew backward I dropped the chain and grabbed the sword.


    The last attacker had slowed down and was spinning her weapon in her hands. She clearly had not liked seeing two of her compatriots taken out in less than a minute and had no intention of running in and blindly attacking me. This gave me time to study the sword I had picked up, it was a Dadao sword, tapered near the hilt and wide near the point to give it weight when chopping downwards. The balance was terrible, all it was designed for was hacking, but in the hands of an expert, it was a deadly tool. I walked towards the last attacker, her face looking grim and her pole arm spinning rapidly, it was a Ji a dagger-axe with a spear. It looked like a traditional spear but with the blade of a dagger attached to the wood. It could be used for thrusting or chopping, in the hands of a competent weapon master it was an incredibly dangerous weapon.


    I flicked the sword at her, but her response was instantaneous, the metal of the spear tip blocking my sword and then with a roll of her hands the blade of the dagger hitting the sword with enough force to flip it to the side, while her pole arm began to thrust straight at my chest. I rolled with the sword, leaving my back exposed for a second, I could almost feel the dagger blade as it hit my back but somehow, I made it to my feet, right where I wanted to be. I thrust out the sword to push her attacking polearm to my right, and then kicked up the chain that had been left on the ground, it flew at her face, and as she raised to polearm to block it, I bent down and thrust upwards, the sharp point of the sword entering her chest and then emerging out her back. I stood up and watched as the polearm fell from her arms, as she staggered into me. Grasping her arms, I lowered her to the floor allowing her to lean against a wall.


    Looking at me she coughed out some blood and then said, ¡°Duke, you are above our level I suggest that you continue your training at the fifth building to receive any benefit.¡± Closing her eyes, she shimmered and vanished. The training technology was far above anything I had heard of before. The avatars I was fighting were real until they vanished, you could touch them, smell the spilled blood, feel the sweat and watch them die. I stood for a moment and thought, perhaps she was right, I could feel the fighting knowledge integration within my body. I knew that the combat computer could have easily taken over my body and defeated the enemies, but I had a funny feeling I should not rely on secondary combat systems built into my cyborg body my main CPU needed to have this software knowledge built into its common database of learned responses


    Turning I walked down the stairs and out the door, heading over to 2B I sat down and began to meditate. After a moment 2B interrupted and said, ¡°Commander the 6pack have arrived at solutions to your query. Our analysis of all the data available suggests that 1) You were murdered in the realm of Earth. 2) we have reached an accuracy of 89 percent that Ong Bai is involved with your murder. Also, we suggest that the Company, is somehow involved, this analysis is at 69 percent accuracy. We do not believe that Chantai was totally forthcoming with you and that a detailed look at all the changes within the EULA as well as an update on the current news both within the solar system and the Earth realm be done before we proceed any farther. The fact is we just do not have enough current information the really know what is happening and to proceed without having that information will lead to failure with an accurate 89 percent projection.¡±


    I nodded he was right, I needed to know what was happening out there. ¡°How long to assimilate all the data? I need to continue to level and we have to finish clearing these spheres to get to command central.¡±


    2B replied, ¡°We need 12 hours to peruse the data and then 12 hours to analyze it,If you continue your training for 24 hours we will be able to develop a long-term plan that will activate once the station is out of this time warp.¡±


    I nodded, it was the best I could do, turning I began to walk towards building 5,¡°Call me when you are ready to go over the info.¡± Entering the doorway, I observed as 5 men began to rush at me. Crap.

 Chapter 15

    Chapter 15


    The sphere we had just entered was dark with only dim emergency lights flickering above the airlocks, according to the map it was where I would find a spacesuit. The 6pack surrounded me with 3 in front and 3 more behind me, 2B and I were in the middle. This sphere had a number of small buildings in it, holding a number of items, from emergency spacesuits to battery packs and assorted tools needed to make emergency repairs to the station. There were a number of these spheres which were a part of the station, it was a testament to the design of the station, it had been built to be repaired if needed. We traveled across the sphere until we stopped near the far airlock next to a small building. I walked over to the door and opened it, observing the racks of suits hanging up. I grabbed the closest one and looked at it, shaped like a backpack with a rigid frame it was a white color with several straps on it.


    Taking my time to figure out how it works I slipped it on and fastened the waist straps. Then I clicked on the 2 straps that crisscrossed my chest. In the middle where all the straps joined was a button. Pushing the button I heard a quiet hum begin and then felt a slight prickly feeling as I was covered in what looked like an orange energy haze. Within seconds the haze had solidified and I was encased in a suit of material, then with a click, I felt a small nudge near my neck and a helmet suddenly encased my head. Immediately a HUD appeared that showed energy levels and the air supply.


    The tech was amazing, we humans had not progressed this far in our development of space suits, ours were still large and clunky, many of them were powered exoskeletal in nature to provide assistance in moving heavy and awkward items in space. The problem with heavy things was not so much the weight of the item but the mass. Once something heavy began to move it needs a lot of strength to control it, and that is what the exoskeletal suits provided. The suit I was wearing was designed to provide safety in an emergency, it was also equipped with several small rockets on the main body of the backpack that would fire a compressed gas to provide thrust. I was able to pull up the manual of the suit from the onboard computer, it was not an AI but was a complex interface computer. You would target your destination and the computer would take over flying you where you wanted to do.


    The 6 pack crew did not need anything, they were fully combat ready in space or in an atmospheric setting. I affectionately looked at the beer cans and at 2B, we were as ready as we were going to be. We entered the airlock and cycled through to the outside of the station. I drifted out of the airlock and stared at the many spheres that were connected together. I could see into many of them, they contained living ecosystems, the life of the planet Mars. Many however were empty and dark, devoid of life and several showed structural damage. Fighting had taken place in many areas of the station, with the 2 separate races of Martians engaged in combat, one trying to save what they could of the planet and the other race following a mad religion of death and destruction, their only goal to destroy the station and all it contained.


    The battle had been fierce with both sides taking losses until the stations AI had moved the station into a time-space vortex where time did not exist. Unfortunately, the AI had shut down or been damaged resulting in the station being stuck for hundreds of years. All living sentient beings had come to the end of their days leaving only droids to continue on the battle. My goal was to avoid the spheres containing any ASHOES droids and enter the station as close to the central command sphere, the command central where I hoped to access the stations AI and bring the station back to normal space. If that did not work it was on to plan B, I just wish I knew what the heck plan B was. If this did not work I was not sure what I would do, 8 years had passed me by and I needed to get back to normal space.


    We entered next to command central and allowed our scanners to check through the damaged sphere. Fighting had been intense and the signs of damage were everywhere. We slowly made our way to the airlock that led to command central. As we passed through the tunnel we came to the entrance airlock that opened into the command sphere directly. It showed signs of damage with discolored metal and pockmarks on the frame. It had taken several direct hits from heavy energy beams. The ceiling showed the wreckage of swivel mounted energy beam weapons that had been deployed in the defense of the station. I was surprised at the fact that energy weapons had been used and yet the passageway was still intact.


    ¡°What do you think?¡±I asked, ¡°Will we be able to get in through this airlock or are we going to have to go outside and try to cut our way into the sphere?¡± Looking at all the droids that surrounded me I was struck by the thought that a cyborg was leading a small group of droids, no biologicals involved. My game had certainly changed, it was now my life. As I stood there thinking about all this I realized that it was not all bad. I was rich in the game, richer than I had ever been in the real world. I owned property, had my own ship and had a claim on an abandoned Russian military base hidden in the asteroids.


    In many ways I was doing well, sure I had lost a few levels but not enough for it to make a huge difference. I was stuck with 5 basic abilities but could find and use any future/ alien tech I could locate. Which is one of the reasons I wanted this station so badly, it was full of amazing tech, things like the spacesuit I had on. Once I had Noa properly reverse engineer it I would make a fortune on the stuff. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that I was basically a lab rat for the corporation. My musings were interrupted by a familiar weight around my shoulders, my Me¡¯kima had returned. ¡°Where were you, my little friend?¡± I asked. Instead of an answer, I was aware that the little beast was fast asleep. He seemed a little larger, he was growing.


    2B called out to me at that moment, ¡°Duke we have been analyzing the problem and unfortunately we do not see any way into the command center. The attackers could not blast their way in, nor can we. The entire sphere is armored and self-contained, it even has its own power supply. The hope was to bring the station out of this time loop and back to normal space. Unfortunately, we do not believe that will now be possible. However, we think that we have a solution to you returning to normal space. If we can access one of the shuttle bays, it may be possible to find an undamaged shuttle, with that you should be able to make the jump back to the solar system.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    2B stopped talking and I immediately began to consider what he had said. If the entrance to command central was blocked then this was my only choice. Returning with a shuttle was not what I had hoped for but at least I would get back and I knew where the portal was that could lead me back here. Calling out to the whole group I began to plan our trip to the shuttle bay. There were three of them, and all three were offline. We would have to make our way towards then to determine if anything could be salvaged or used. The nearest one was actually only a few spheres removed from command central.


    Turning around we began to travel towards the spheres. Fortunately, we encountered no opposition to us and arrived at the shuttle bay. 2 of the 3 spheres we had traveled through had been damaged, with no life in them at all. The third one was a desert setting, with hardly any life visible, but 2B assured me that the sands held many life forms. It reminded me of Mars as it is now. Dry, dusty and both cold and hot. The only difference was the lack of wind. Leaving the last sphere we were soon at the final airlock. It showed no signs of damage and was still self-powered.


    Pushing the button to open the airlock we waited as it cycled through and then entered the sphere. The sphere had been built in three levels with all of them open to a large space in the center. Each level contained several ships, many of which were damaged. There was a large jagged hole in the roof of the sphere, it looked like a torpedo had blasted its way in and then the secondary explosion took place. ¡°2B, you are with me, the rest of you fan out and begin searching for a ship that is undamaged or can be easily repaired, Canadian, you are in charge. I will search the bottom level.¡±


    2B and I began to walk the circumference of the room, stopping at each ship to observe the damage and make notes of what looked like it could be repaired and what could not. In the end we found one shuttle, that was not damaged, but unfortunately, it had been in for maintenance and would not be flying without some work. The two teams also had mixed results with only one other possible ship found. It had taken damage in the body of the ship. This area housed the crew''s living space as will as the small hold. The shuttle was divided into three sections, the rear of the shuttle held the power plant, and generators needed to power the ship''s ability to make wormholes and gravity fields.


    The Martian ships did not use fusion drives or any other tech that Humans used with the exception of maneuvering rockets and they were for emergencies. Instead, the ship would create a constant stream of artificial miniature black holes whose gravitational pull would encase the ship. Just as the ship was about to enter the black hole, it would be powered down and another one would power up, This could lead to the ship moving at extraordinary speeds, in couple space. For travel to more distant spaces, the ship would create a field of black holes and then somehow use the gravitational forces created to fold space and time, which resulted in the ship traveling a great distance in a relatively short field of time.


    The best way to visualize it is to see a sheet of paper. You are on one end and your destination of on the other. Now if you fold the paper in half, you and your destination are very close to each other. You just need a way to fold the paper or in real life space and time. If you can do that then it is a simple matter of entering an opening and popping out another one at your destination. Of course, there is nothing simple about the actual math and mechanics of how it is done. Human tech was not at the point where this was possible, Martian tech was, simple as that. The space station was stuck in between these 2 points in space and time and until it could be brought back online it would remain where it was, in its own pocket universe.


    The shuttle, on the other hand, could still travel, its generators capable of opening up a wormhole and allowing for the shuttle to get back into normal space. At least that was my hope. We began by going over the shuttle in fine detail noting all the structural damage as will as what was needed for internal repairs. The job was simple to outline but complicated to do. All the holes had to be sealed, and the unified platform that the shuttle was built on strengthened. If the shuttle buckled from the gravitational pull that it would be subjected to, that would be the end. The wiring also had to be gone over, while all spaceships were designed with redundancy by having triple wiring, and Martian ships were no different from Earth ship''s in this regard, a short or an improper ground might cause feedback to the computers running the ship.


    The main batteries of the ship had discharged over the centuries, the ship had been on an umbilical cord, piggybacking the space shuttles power while docked but this sphere had not had power for a long time. The first thing to do was to make sure the wiring repairs were completed. I had 2B call up NTB the repair droid and direct him to the shuttle deck. Once he arrived I explained what we needed. NTB immediately began to scan the shuttle and connect sensors and power packs to different ports.


    Being curious I asked, ¡°What are you doing?¡± NTB swiveled a camera to focus on me as he continued to work then he spoke, Speaking in Earth terms, I am measuring the resistance of the flow of electrons within each circuit. I am making sure that the resistance is within specifications, and that if there is a fault I can isolate each circuit to and trace the fault to either repair or replace whatever is needed. I am also running diagnostics at each junction and at each microcontroller. Plus there are thousands of what you call NPN and PNP switches. I am making sure that they are functioning in both sinking and sourcing actions. I am also doing a myriad of checks on all the batteries and capacitors to make sure they are functioning within spec.¡±


    I interrupted NTB at this point as my interest was rapidly decreasing. ¡°Tell me how long till the shuttle will be ready to undergo a power test. It is important to make sure that we don¡¯t throw all our resources into this repair job and then find that there was hidden damage that can¡¯t be repaired. If that is the case then we must move on the next shuttle bay. Thinking of this I called out to Corona who was passing by with a sheet of metal. ¡°I am delegating you to try to make your way to the remaining shuttle bays if it is safe to get to them, enter and explore then report back to me if any of the shuttles are in better shape.¡±


    Having done what I could to make sure that I had my bases loaded, Imoved out of the way, the droids were working at a fast pace scavenging items and moving things, I would be in the way if I tried to help. Calling out to 2B I said, ¡°Can you download the pilot''s manual and flight sim for me to review, it will give me something to do as I wait here?¡± Once it was downloaded I began to review it and then spent the next 25 hours running a virtual sim on piloting the shuttle. Having an advanced CPU for a brain was opening all kind of opportunities for learning for me.